ISSUE 26
SPRING2012
for journalism alumni of
city university london
xcity-magazine.com

IAN
HISLOP
On Marr, sleaze

and losing his rag
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

TAKING
TRIPOLI

Alex Crawford: the
story behind the scoop

EVAN DAVIS

We ask the questions

drugs, LIES
AND PUNS
Hacks confess
to their worst
habits

ISSUE 26 SPRING 2012

+

Robert FISK
Janice Turner
Fleet Street Fox

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23/03/2012 15:12:42

Inside cover, pp1-3.indd 2

23/03/2012 15:06:13

FROM THE EDITOR

W

elcome to XCity 2012. With the phone hacking revelations of the past
year still dominating the public perception of the press, it’s inevitable
that thoughts turned to the Leveson Inquiry when plotting and planning
our pages. We firmly believe that, despite the turmoil and potential damage to the
reputation of the media, this magazine showcases the best in journalism. From our
XCity Award winner Lourdes Garcia-Navarro to the independent magazines carving
out a niche for themselves on the shelves, the industry is thriving.
With Leveson in mind, we turned to Ian Hislop for a stalwart’s view of the whole
affair. We also hear from anonymous blogger Fleet Street Fox, who mounts a
passionate defence of her tabloid colleagues.
The role of the media is being widely discussed, but what about those trying to make
their name? Our analysis shows that 72% of City journalism MA graduates since
2007 took their first degrees at a Russell Group university. As the cost of journalism
training rises, what’s the effect on the media when talent is priced out of the industry?
Elsewhere, we chat exclusively with Evan Davis about why he considers himself a
“soft” interviewer, while Alex Crawford and her Sky team talk us through the thrills
and risks of being first into Tripoli. We lift the lid on the mysterious world of the
ghost writer: many journalists relish the glory of a byline or being front of camera, but
what’s it like to slave away in someone else’s name?
Robert Fisk takes to our pages to bemoan the influence of the internet on
modern journalism. Meanwhile, the XCity website has been crafted by our web and
multimedia team to expand on the print magazine, with exclusive videos and blogs.
And no matter how rigorous your City training, take a glance at our worst habits
feature and remember that everyone, no matter how outwardly calm, still has their
vices. We hope you enjoy reading your XCity.

58 ALL SIGNS POINT EAST
The real cost of reporting amid
China’s media boom

HOW ACCEPTING PR GIFTS
BECAME A CRIMINAL ACT

Love a freebie? Think again before
taking that press trip

27

60

Ian Hislop talks about hacking,
HIGNFY, and his distaste for
“legover” journalism

32

63 WHY I HATE THE WEB

THE STORY BEHIND THE SCOOP
How a laptop and steady nerves bagged
Sky the Libya exclusive of the year

38

GHOSTWRITERS OUT
OF THE SHADOWS
Meet the mysterious and unappreciated
authors behind celebrity memoirs

52

LONDON 2012: MEDIA
BY NUMBERS
21,000 media professionals; 50,000
meals a day - we crunch the numbers

54

TALES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Who skied down the aisles of Air Force
One during take-off? And whose water
glass was 100% proof whisky?

HAVING THE LAST LAUGH

Robert Fisk on how the internet is
killing journalism

124

I’M A TABLOID HACK
AND PROUD OF IT
The mysterious Fleet Street Fox fights
the red tops’ corner

FOR
48 FISHING
ANECDOTES

Columnists reveal what
it’s like to write about
your life for a living

Listings
65 ALUMNI DIRECTORY

Check up on your ex-coursemates
with our extensive graduate
listings

FROM FLEET STREET TO
DOWNING STREET

Top journalists reveal the perks and
perils of swapping sides

34 THIS CHARMING MAG

Four independent magazines
conquering the newsstand
with style and panache
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 15:06:18

News

Undergraduate launches new
glamour mag from bedroom

A “lads’ mag” with a circulation of
36,000 has been successfully launched
by a City undergraduate.
Jon Devo, 25, a third year psychology
and journalism student, helped launch
HeDD in the summer of 2010 after being
approached by a modelling agent.
The first promotional edition of
the magazine was designed in Devo’s
bedroom in west London before 9,000
copies were distributed around London
and the South East in September 2010.
Now on its ninth issue, HeDD is sold
for £2.65 in newsagents and distributed
for free across university campuses.
HeDD covers fashion, fitness, music,
film, games and technology. The latest
issue features American football and a
photo shoot with glamour model Rehea
Watson, a finalist in Katie Price’s
televised model search Signed.
The name combines the male pronoun
“he” and the glamour model bust size
“DD”, but Devo calls it “the thinking
man’s glamour mag”.
Devo agreed to help set up the
publication because he enjoyed creating
a magazine as part of his course. He is
now HeDD’s art director.
He said: “I wasn’t entirely happy with
the first few issues. There was too much
skin and not enough fashion – I wouldn’t
have read it. Now even girls like it.”

HeDD art director Jon Devo
Despite working 18-hour days on the
magazine, Devo says his grades have not
suffered: “The magazine has made me
more focused on work and university. I
get essays done two weeks after they’re
set, not the night before they’re due.”
Devo graduates this summer and plans
to continue working on the magazine
full-time, hoping it will eventually sit
side by side with GQ.
“It’s hard to believe I made issue one
in my bedroom and now it’s on shelves

in WH Smith. My tutors can’t believe
that someone has got a magazine off the
shelf before they’ve even finished the
course,” he said.
Barbara Schofield, course director of
the BA in journalism and contemporary
history, said: “Jon’s a fantastic student
to have around, very calm and focused.
I’m not surprised by his success – our
students are always coming up with
ideas. Jon has stuck with it and shown
perseverance.”
KATE LLOYD

Coursemates become soulmates: mag grads to marry
When Christian Koch and Suzy Cox
met at the start of term in 1999, they
were both aspiring music journalists
beginning the periodical diploma.
Little did they know that 13 years
later they would be preparing to walk
up the aisle together.
Koch (periodical, 2000), a freelance
writer for Q, The Sunday Times and
Glamour, proposed to Cox (periodical,
2000), deputy editor of Cosmopolitan,
on the beach during a press trip to
Jamaica in 2010. The couple will marry
in Cornwall this May.
“It wasn’t love at first sight,” said Cox.
4 /

Drunken kiss led to wedding bells
“It took four years for us to get together.
We had a drunken kiss in the first
month at City, but neither of us liked
the other in that way.”

Koch and Cox remained friends after
graduation, before romance blossomed.
Cox admitted: “We didn’t tell any
of the City lot for months. We were a
bit confused and didn’t want to cause
a mess if things didn’t work out. Now
everyone says it was obvious we’d end
up together.”
Suzy and Christian will be the third
couple from City to get married in
the past year. In September, Andrew
MacAskill
and
Joanna
Sugden
(newspaper, 2007) and Sarah Bush and
Sean O’Connell (periodical, 2003), also
tied the knot.
PETE ELLENDER

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:41:40

News

Guardian News and Media’s offices at Kings Place. The group plans to contribute to a journalism course with an unidentified university

EXCLUSIVE

develop a new
THE Guardian plans to set up a major
journalism training scheme with a
university in a surprise move that will
rival City and other universities, XCity
can reveal.
The loss-making newspaper intends to
“contribute” to a number of modules and
train student journalists to Guardian
standards of digital reporting.
The Guardian initially considered
opening a stand-alone journalism
school but abandoned the plans, as
postgraduate accreditation can take up
to 10 years to secure.
XCity understands that students
will pay around £9,000 a year for the
national newspaper’s proposed digital
media course.
The course, which could start as soon
as September 2013, is set to rival City’s
new interactive journalism MA and
other digital postgraduate courses.
If successful, The Guardian is expected
to broaden the number of courses
available. The newspaper wants to cash
in on its expertise in online journalism
and develop a new money-generating
wing to its business interests.
Richard Lindsay, interim head of
PR and internal communications at
Guardian News and Media, confirmed
to XCity that the newspaper had been

Guardian plan for
rival journalism
course exposed
speaking to “a range of schools across
the country about contributing to the
courses they run”.
He said the partnership would be up
and running in “reasonable time” but
said it hoped to enrol students for the
next academic year.
Last year, City launched its pioneering
interactive journalism MA, in which
students learn how to marry traditional
reporting with data journalism and
community management.
A meeting was held between
representatives from City and The
Guardian in February to establish
a partnership but the conversations
ended without an agreement.
The newspaper has refused to reveal
which university they are currently
in talks with about the new course,
although it is rumoured to be an
institution outside London.
Lindsay said the partnership was
not about creating a “stream of people
to come and work at The Guardian”,
adding that any involvement they had

with the training of journalists would
benefit the profession as a whole, not
just the newspaper.
He said: “The Guardian aims
to promote open, courageous and
professional journalism that can take
advantage of the new information
systems rather than being threatened
by them. That is the primary aim.
“Often to get the input of people in the
industry on a regular basis is difficult
but we think we can bring something to
these courses. It’s as simple as that –
we’ve got something to contribute.”
It is believed that this is a move to
raise revenue, as The Guardian and
The Observer posted losses of £33m in
the year to June 2011.
The Guardian has laid off a number of
editorial staff, and its graduate training
scheme has not run since 2008.
The newspaper announced it would
focus on its online news coverage and
ramp up its digital strategy as it aims to
double its revenue to £100m by 2016.
DAVID WOODE AND NATASHA WYNARCZYK

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:41:40

News

Times crusade
for cycle safety
a huge success

A NATIONAL cycle safety campaign has
been launched in The Times by a former
City student after one of his colleagues
was seriously injured.
Kaya Burgess (newspaper, 2008) got
involved in the campaign when fellow
Times journalist Mary Bowers was hit
by a lorry while cycling last November,
breaking her arms, legs and pelvis. She Journalism professors at the Leveson Inquiry: from left, Steven Barnett (University of
remains unconscious.
Westminster), George Brock and Brian Cathcart (Kingston University)
The accident prompted The Times
to launch the “Cities fit for cycling”
campaign in February – calling for
2% of the Highways Agency budget
to be reserved for improving cycling
infrastructure, more cycle-friendly HGVs
and better training for road users.
Since its launch, the campaign has won
backing from MPs, athletes and world
Professor Brock appeared at the
media. David Cameron has verbally THE INQUIRY into phone hacking will
assured his support.
not change the way ethics is taught at the inquiry in December as part of a panel
university, says the head of journalism. of journalism academics alongside
Professor George Brock said that phone lecturers from Westminster, Goldsmiths
hacking had not “radically” changed the and Kingston universities.
He told the inquiry that ethics
way ethics is taught at the university.
He said: “The interesting things in are “determined by the culture of a
ethics teaching are the grey areas, and newsroom” and that the culture is
phone hacking, quite honestly, isn’t a created by competition for stories and
difficult ethical dilemma - it’s against reporters who misunderstand signals
from the top.
the law.”
Cycling campaigner Kaya Burgess
But he said the “essence” of the issue
The former managing editor of The
Speaking about the accident, Burgess Times said that ethics is taught within a should be to create incentives that will
said: “It shook a lot of people up. She broad framework. “You can teach ethics work in popular newsrooms.
Professor Brock said the inquiry was
is one of my best friends as well as a in two ways; you can discuss values, and
you can bring people up-to-date with the about telling people in the wider world
colleague – and I’m a cyclist as well.
“I see Mary a couple of times a week in rules they are likely to encounter and how media culture works.
He said: “News media culture has, at
how they will work.”
hospital so I was asked to help run it.”
He added that ethics teaching at the least in certain places, become inwardZac Goldsmith, one of 58 MPs to sign
a Commons motion in support of the university was reviewed regularly in looking. If what’s done in newsrooms
only ever makes reference to what’s
campaign, said: “Cycling is a dangerous light of industry developments.
Professor Roy Greenslade, who teaches done in newsrooms, people start to lose
activity and if we want to boost take-up
that needs to change. This campaign the Journalism and Society module their bearings.”
Professor Brock was one of three City
has pushed the issue far higher up the at City, said: “The key is to take one
political agenda and I hope as a result subject that [students] will all face, one staff at City to give evidence at the
way or another, and then tease out the inquiry. John Battle, head of compliance
we’ll see radical steps.”
A spokesman from the London Cycling problems that will occur in the coverage at ITN and media law lecturer, and
Professor David Leigh, investigations
Campaign charity described The Times of that subject.”
The issue of ethics teaching was raised executive editor at The Guardian have
campaign as “an excellent effort bringing
the problems faced by people who want to at the Leveson Inquiry, amid concerns also taken the stand in recent months.
cycle in the UK to a national audience”. that future reporters would be pressured
EDWARD RANDELL
JULIA RAMPEN to deliver exclusive stories.
AND VESELA GLADICHEVA

IMAGE: DAVID BEBBER FOR THE TIMES

Phone hacking will
not change ethics
teaching at City

6 /

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:48:45

THE department of journalism waved
goodbye to two longstanding staff
members at the start of the year as Anna
McKane, director of the journalism BA,
and Heather Purdey, director of the
international MA, retired from their
respective positions.
McKane spent 16 years at City after
joining the department to teach on the
newspaper MA in 1995. She was director
of the undergraduate journalism and
contemporary history course before
helping to launch the journalism BA.
In recent years the BA has become
increasingly competitive, with applicants
expected to achieve three As at A-level.
Last year, 750 students applied for just 76
places. McKane is proud of the progress
the course has made. “The course has
moved with the times and expanded to
become more multi-platform oriented,”
she said. “It’s still a young course but I
can confidently say it’s now one of the
best in the country.”
McKane is now devoting her time to
organising a conference for the European
Journalism Training Association, to be
held in Istanbul this May, and writing a
second edition of her book on the craft of
reporting, News Writing.
Heather
Purdey
joined
the
international MA faculty in 1996 and
became course director a year later. Since
then, student numbers have tripled,

IMAGE: KAREN HATCH

Goodbye to much-loved tutors

News

Heather Purdey (left) and Anna McKane (right) have retired from their City teaching roles
with more than 100 people enrolled on
the course in 2011/12.
Purdey said she will always have fond
memories of her time at City due to the
diversity of the students she worked
with. “It has been the best job I’ve ever
had,” she said. “Students on the course
come from 40 different countries around
the world and working with such a range
of students is something that will always
stay with me.”
She is now working on a PhD at City,
organising short courses for journalists

and helping set up a local internet radio
station in Wivenhoe, Essex.
Two new members of staff have been
hired to lead the two courses. Professor
Suzanne Franks joined the department
in January from the University of Kent
as head of the BA course. Meanwhile,
Professor
Michael
Bromley,
who
previously taught on the international
MA, will return to City as course
director, leaving his role as chair of the
journalism department at the University
of Queensland.
RICHARD MARTIN

IMAGE: STEVE DENNETT

Sports bloggers win promotion to the big league

ArchLevel Report is a specialist lacrosse site

TWO recent journalism graduates have
developed successful businesses from
sports blogs they started at university.
Charlie Lankston (newspaper, 2011)
created a blog about lacrosse for the
online journalism module and soon saw
the site attracting 250 hits a day.
In June, Lankston was approached by
the lacrosse website ArchLevel Report,
who bought her out and appointed her
editor. She also freelances for a number
of national newspapers.
Lankston has played lacrosse since
the age of 12 and will represent Scotland
at the 2012 European Championships,
which she also will be covering for
ArchLevel Report.

Martin Caparrotta (newspaper, 2011)
launched The Sport Review blog as a
student at University College London.
Since graduating from City last
summer, Caparrotta has expanded the
blog into a wesbite that carries adverts,
with six permanent editorial staff and
14 regular contributors.
The Sport Review averages over
200,000 unique page views per month.
The site generates revenue through
GoogleAds and the team also produces
content for Bet365.com.
Caparrotta said: “To be at the stage
where we’ve got a decent amount of
money just after finishing the course is a
dream come true.”
RICHARD MARTIN
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:48:46

News

A PIONEERING scheme to train
Tunisian reporters has been set up by
City’s journalism department.
“Reporting in a democracy” advised
the country’s media on the challenges
of journalism in a free society. It
was developed for the Journalism
Foundation by Charlie Burgess and
City’s deputy head of journalism Lis
Howell, in consultation with Tunisian
organisations such as the Syndicat
National des Journalistes Tunisiens.
The week-long course in February
was the first held in Tunisia since last
January’s revolution. Forty students
attended classes on topics including
political and economic reporting, and the
use of social media as a news source.
Since the overthrow of President Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali, journalism has
boomed in Tunisia. More than 100 media
business licenses have been granted, at
least 20 newspapers have been launched,
and applications for new television
channels have been submitted. Two
high commissions have been created to
review the press codes that previously
fined and imprisoned journalists.
Last December the country held the
first free elections of the Arab Spring.
But with the Islamist An-Nahda Party

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

Building a free press in Tunisia

Evgeny Lebedev speaking to Tunisian prime minister Hamadi Jebali
now in coalition, the battle for media
freedom is still ongoing.
Professor Ivor Gaber, director of the
political journalism MA, who lectured
on the course, has extensive experience
of post-conflict societies. He said:
“People think it’s easy to establish free,
independent journalism. It’s not. After
years of authoritarianism, it takes a
long time to unlearn habits.”
Participants included journalists who
worked under the former regime, as well
as bloggers who entered the mainstream
during the Arab Spring.
“A lot of these people are immensely
experienced journalists,” said Lis
Howell. “It’s just that they’ve gone down

a slightly different route.”
“We talked to them about the shortage
of Britons voting in local elections,
which was absolutely amazing to them.
They thought people should be beating
down doors to vote in local elections.
They could teach us something about
enthusiasm in democracy.”
The Journalism Foundation, a notfor-profit body supporting “free, fair
and independent journalism” around
the world, was set up by Simon Kelner,
former editor-in-chief of The Independent,
and supported by the Lebedev family.
The Foundation hopes to set up similar
courses in Libya and other Middle
Eastern countries.
NADIA KHOMAMI

Ex-student quits Afghan government job due to corruption

8 /

have paid a great sacrifice. I hope things
the country.
“I left because I did not want to be will get better.”
ZING TSJENG
part of the wrongdoing going on in
government,” Malyar said. “Afghan
leaders need to see that this is becoming
dangerous for the future of the country. If
not, the country will become a sanctuary
for international terrorists again.”
Malyar, who grew up in Kabul, has
vivid memories of Taliban rule. As a
teenager, he was imprisoned twice: first
for cutting his beard and then for buying
second-hand electronics.
“It was the worst time of my life,” he
said, “Everyone was filled with fear and
sorrow. There was no school for women,
no democratic government – even the
men had no rights.” But Malyar, now
a translator, remains optimistic about
Afghanistan’s future. “Ordinary Afghans Afghan president Hamid Karzai

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

A FORMER student has told XCity
how
widespread
corruption
and
nepotism drove him out of his job in the
Afghanistan government.
Fahim Malyar (international, 2011)
worked for the Afghan Government
Information Service (AGIS), as the aide to
President Hamid Karzai’s spokesperson
Waheed Omer. He resigned at the end
of last year.
“Most of the key government positions
are filled by people who have support from
warlords,” Malyar said. “An increasing
number of people are appointed based
on their own ties with officials.”
Malyar worked for AGIS for only three
and a half months before the organisation
collapsed. The US government, in protest
at the scale of corruption, pulled out all
of their advisors and cut off support to
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:51:02

News

PUBLISHED articles by current
City journalism students are being
showcased on a new web page set up
by the university.
The journalism bylines section,
created last October, contains more
than 250 published stories and is
among the five most popular pages
on the faculty’s website.
There was a flurry of activity over
the winter holiday work placements,
when students promoted their
newly published articles using the
#citybylines hashtag on Twitter. VG
Read students’ work at
tinyurl.com/citybylines

Tutor advises on libel bill
A COLLECTION of papers edited
by Connie St Louis, director of
the science journalism MA, was
submitted as evidence to the
parliamentary committee drafting
the Libel Reform Bill.
Reframing
Libel
includes
contributions by leading lawyers,
journalists and academics, and
addresses the costs and procedures
involved in libel law, as well as its
impact on freedom of speech.
The bill was triggered by the case
of Dr Simon Singh, who was sued
for libel after he wrote an article
with evidence-based research that
defended chiropractors who treat
children with conditions such as colic
and asthma. DWO

DAVID WOODE,VESELA GLADICHEVA, DAISY WYATT

Queen B gets a makeover
THE Queen Boadicea pub on St John
Street, formerly known as New Red
Lion and The Bull, has changed its
name once again, this time to The
Blacksmith and The Toffeemaker.
The pub, a popular watering
hole among students, reopened
in February after two months of
refurbishment.
General manager Matt Rix
described the look as “classical retro
with modern touches, as well as an
emphasis on British tradition”.
DWY

New website takes
reporting to streets
A NEW hyperlocal website will offer City in November 2009 by students at
students the opportunity to practice news Goldsmiths and attracts 54,000 visitors
writing in a professional environment.
each month.
City have chosen a “micro” approach
Terry Kirby, lecturer in journalism at
to the local news site, under plans Goldsmiths, said: “The great thing for
being considered by the journalism the students is they get real experience
department. Each student will be given covering stories. They can add to their
a single street to cover and will post copy, cuttings and show people that they’ve
photographs, multimedia and graphics done it in a proper environment.”
on individual news sites.
He added: “The site provides a lot of
John Rennie, a lecturer on the BA challenges. As teachers we have to keep
course, is leading the project. He said: on top of it. During the riots last year we
“The student has to build a research site had almost no students around. I wrote
and set up a ‘local newspaper’ for the a huge chunk of the riots coverage as it
street so that rather than something big, happened on the night myself. Angela
we have something tiny, and we can see [Philips, senior lecturer] and I were
where the connections lead.
basically working as reporters.”
“It will provide a source of genuine
Rennie is keen to avoid such problems
stories for the students and get them to at City. He said: “Ideally City would
interview people face to face. This will have a paid-for managing editor, as one
help them develop their social skills.”
of the problems of student sites is that
Under the outline plans, the site will be they burn brightly in the term time and
used by 75 second-year undergraduates disappear in the holidays. We don’t want
when it starts in September. City to do that.”
PETE ELLENDER
intends to expand the sites so
that all MA and BA students
contribute.
Rennie said the project,
provisionally entitled The
Streets of London, was “an
experiment”, but he hoped it
would be a success.
Other journalism schools
across the country already
have news websites. The most
notable is EastLondonLines,
which
was
launched Each student will be given a street to report on

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

Bylines page showcases
published student work

Interactive MA bolsters job prospects
CITY’S interactive journalism course
has already helped students get data
stories published and boosted their
employability, says its course director.
The interactive MA, which includes
core modules from postgraduate
courses, teaches students how data and
communities work, and ensures that
students are able to work effectively
with programmers and web developers.
Course director Jonathan Hewett

said: “There’s a definite demand in the
industry for people who have a solid
journalism background with the added
skills of being able to find, analyse,
interpret and present data properly.”
Notable City graduates already
working in the field include The Times’s
communities editor Ben Whitelaw
(newspaper, 2011) and The Guardian’s
Datablog editor Simon Rogers
(newspaper, 1991).
REBECCA LLOYD
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:51:02

BEATINGS by soldiers, sheltering from
mortar fire and working undercover in
Syria are just some of the risks endured
by City alumni in order to report directly
from the Arab Spring.
Ramita Navai (broadcast, 2003), Iona
Craig (BA journalism, 2010) and Lourdes
Garcia-Navarro (international, 2002)
have been reporting from the Middle
East since the onset of pro-democracy
demonstrations in early 2011.
Garcia-Navarro, who has been covering
the Egypt and Libya revolutions for
National Public Radio, said: “The last
year has been extremely volatile. I’ve
been attacked by Mubarak thugs in
Cairo, under mortar fire in Misrata and
watched NATO bombs fall in Tripoli.”
Navai, a reporter for Channel 4’s
Unreported World, spent two weeks last
October living undercover with members
of Syria’s opposition movement. She said:
“We got trapped in a safe house in one
town as the security services and militia
raided homes in our street. The activists
hid in a tiny cupboard, and told us that if
they were caught, they’d be killed. Many
of the Syrians who were taken away that
day have not been heard of since.
“Reporting from conflict zones is
neither glamorous nor thrilling – it’s
dirty, dangerous work. The point of it
is to tell other people’s stories, to give a
voice to those who often don’t have one.”
Speaking the day after The Sunday
Times war correspondent Marie Colvin
was killed in Homs by Syrian armed
forces, Garcia-Navarro said: “As the

Image: Channel 4, Unreported World

News

Ramita Navai, a reporter for Channel 4’s Unreported World

Correspondents
brave bullets to
cover Arab revolts

recent deaths of my colleagues in Syria
show, journalists and their local support
staff are facing more danger than ever.
Most conflicts these days have blurry
front lines, and most actors in those
conflicts rarely respect the media’s
impartial role.”
Iona Craig, who reports from Yemen
for The Times, has been beaten
with a club and sprayed with tear
gas by soldiers amidst violent anti-

government uprisings. She said: “Last
March colleagues were deported and
harrassment and attacks became
commonplace – although us foreign
journalists came off lightly compared to
the Yemeni journalists.”
According to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, 21 journalists have been
killed in the Middle East since the
beginning of the Arab Spring.
MONIQUE RIVALLAND

Image: The Guardian

Undergraduate course still popular as fees rise to £9,000

Places are hotly contested despite fee hike
COMPETITION for places on the
undergraduate journalism course at City
remains fierce, despite the introduction
of £9,000 annual fees and the second
lowest National Student Survey (NSS)
satisfaction rate in the country.
10 /

According to UCAS, applications for
undergraduate journalism courses have
fallen by 19% nationally. But City’s
course still has around six applicants
per place, despite entrants now needing
three As at A-level to gain a place.
Professor Suzanne Franks, course
director, said: “We still have a good
reputation and receive hundreds of
applications. The reputation is evidenced
by the fact that our entry requirements
are the highest in the country.”
Staff have also noted an increasing
number of students applying to transfer
to City from other universities. This

comes at a time when, according to the
NSS, just 53% of City undergraduate
journalism students were satisfied with
the overall quality of their course.
Professor Franks said City was
looking to hire “two new full-time staff,
hopefully a third” to provide greater
support to students. The department
has also encouraged more students to
complete the NSS, believing that last
year’s poor showing did not fairly reflect
student satisfaction. This year, 88% of
journalism students have given feedback
– more than any other department.
NATASHA WYNARCZYK AND PETE ELLENDER

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

XCity News pp 10-11_VG_ER.indd 2

23/03/2012 14:51:45

News

Course leader fights for more
women experts in the media
A CAMPAIGN encouraging broadcasters
to interview more female experts on
air is being led by the deputy head of
journalism at City.
Lis Howell, who is also the director
of broadcasting, has spearheaded the
Expert Women campaign with the help
of Broadcast magazine.
The campaign has drawn up a petition
encouraging media outlets to ensure
that women make up 30% of all expert
interviewees on broadcast media.
Howell previously researched the
number of women on television and
radio news, and found that women were
under-represented across the board.
Her research also revealed that from
2010 to 2011 there was no improvement
in the number of women experts used

on television and radio. Howell said she
hoped the petition would bring the issue
into the industry spotlight.
“Even the programmes which have
most women interviewees – Daybreak,
BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Breakfast –
still only have a ratio of four to one and
many of their female participants are
victims or case studies, not authority
figures,” she said.
She also stressed the 30% was not a
quota, but a realistic minimum target
for the broadcast media to achieve.
The campaign comes in the wake
of research by City last year after a
study into gender and the press by The
Guardian’s Kira Cochrane found that
just 22.6% of journalists were female.
City examined its graduates between

Image: The Guardian

As Lis Howell campaigns for more female faces on air, new
statistics reveal a significant gender split in graduate media jobs

Lis Howell, director of broadcasting at City
2006 and 2008 to find out if a higher
proportion
of
female
journalism
graduates translated into a higher
proportion of female journalists.
Results showed that of 406 alumni
working in journalism, 63% were female
and 37% male. Female graduates
were more dominant in regional and
international broadcasting, while male
graduates outnumbered females in UK
national newspapers.
To sign the petition, visit
http://tinyurl.com/expertwomen

Image: Ling Ko

DAVID WOODE AND NATASHA WYNARCZYK

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XCity News pp 10-11_VG_ER.indd 3

/ 11

23/03/2012 14:51:46

News

First head of City department of journalism Tom Welsh with former
student and public services editor of The Guardian, David Brindle

LONDON’S media elite gathered at Glaziers Hall in Bankside last September to
celebrate the 35th anniversary of City’s department of journalism.
More than 300 guests including former students, lecturers and academics came to
mark the occasion. Speaking at the event, Professor George Brock said: “While our
courses continue to adapt to the times, our reputation built over the last 35 years
for providing the best journalism degrees in the heart of London is consistent.
“However, when it comes down to it, our most powerful marketing asset is our
alumni and the influential jobs in the media which they hold.”
DAVID WOODE

Students from the 2011 magazine course joined the celebrations
12 /

12-13 RDL.indd 2

Former head of journalism Hugh Stephenson

Course director Rosie Waterhouse with
former investigative students

City Hall editor of the Evening Standard, Pippa Crerar,
with The Independent on Sunday’s editor John Mullin

IMAGES: KAREN HATCH

The great and the
good come together
for 35th anniversary

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

23/03/2012 14:54:21

Fears for quality
of City teaching
in push for PhDs
CONCERNS have been raised that
practice-based teaching in the journalism
department could be jeopardised – with
all staff being encouraged to undertake
PhD research.
The fear was expressed as the
department pushed ahead with the
university’s controversial policy of only
hiring academic staff with doctorates.
Professor Chris Frost, former chair of
the Association for Journalism Education,
said there were so few journalists with
doctorates that it was inevitable staff
would be recruited because of their PhD
rather than journalism experience.
He said: “This could lead to a
journalism department that has serious
imbalances and an approach that could
be out of line with the industry.
“Either the vice-chancellor has a
leading UK journalism department
or he has a journalism department
with a research record but a mediocre
reputation for journalism.”
There was no formal consultation with
employers or course accrediting bodies
about the plans to increase the number

of academic staff.
Loraine Davies, director of the
Periodicals Training Council – the body
that accredits the magazine MA said: “We
would be very concerned if practitioners
were expected to spend so much time
pursuing further qualifications that
they had to suspend their professional
work, maintaining contacts and content
of courses.”
Two new professors have been
appointed to the department as part
of vice-chancellor Professor Paul
Curran’s plans to recruit more staff with
doctorates. Suzanne Franks, head of
undergraduate journalism, and Michael
Bromley, head of the international
journalism MA, both hold PhDs.
Professor George Brock, head of the
department of journalism, expects about
a third of all staff to undertake scholarly
research in the next few years.
The former Times managing editor
said: “I don’t for one moment think that
encouraging more research in journalism
will harm practice-based teaching.”
NICOLA MERRIFIELD AND DAISY WYATT

DAVID WOODE, NATASHA WYNARCZYK, ZING TSJENG, DAISY WYATT

It’s business time: students sharpen
entrepreneurial edge on new course
AN entrepreneurial course at City
plans to link students with rising tech
companies to give them a competitive
edge in the job market.
The
entrepreneurial
journalism
module was introduced this year for all
MA pathways. City is one of a handful
of universities in the country that teach
the subject as a core module.
The course teaches students about
different business models, how to write
business plans and how to pitch their
ideas. It also offers them the opportunity
to network with entrepreneurs.
Students collaborate with their peers
from other courses to create a final

project that they will pitch to a panel of
experts in June.
Students have learned how to create
successful media start-ups from guest
lecturers including Stevie Spring, former
chief executive of Future Publishing.
Module leader Barbara Rowlands
hopes to “refine” the course next year by
building links with entrepreneurs from
London’s East End Silicon Roundabout,
Old Street, and is seeking funding so the
top pitch can win an award.
Rowlands said: “Employers want
practical knowledge and this course
gives them an entrepreneurial edge.”

News

Data investigation into
last summer’s UK riots
CURRENT and former City students
helped create a report investigating
why riots broke out in major British
cities last August.
The London School of Economics
and The Guardian collaborated to
produce Reading the Riots, published
in December 2011.
Data journalist James Ball
(investigative, 2008) was part of the
core team, while Christine Ottery
(science, 2010) and current student
John Burn-Murdoch (interactive,
2012) were data researchers.
The
report
identified
poor
parenting, political distrust, social
networking, and racial tension as
key factors in the unrest. DWO

£3,000 newspaper bursary
A THREE thousand pound bursary
will be offered to a student on the
newspaper MA, the Guild of St
Bride has announced.
The Venerable David Meara,
rector of the Fleet Street church,
made the announcement at the
Press Awards on 20 March.
He said: “We hope that this bursary
will be a practical contribution to
encouraging a new generation of
committed journalists.” NW

New skills for political MA
POSTGRADUATES on the political
MA course are now being taught
broadcast skills.
During a 10-week course, students
produce a political radio package
and a current affairs TV programme,
which includes shooting packages,
live spots and news bulletins. ZT

Financial MA swells in size
THE financial journalism MA at City
has almost doubled in size following
a rise in applicants.
Now in its second year, 24 students
are enrolled on the programme,
compared to just 13 in 2010/11.
The Financial Times has funded
four places on the course. DWY

NATASHA WYNARCZYK

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23/03/2012 14:54:21

News

New book documents risks
facing women war reporters

A BOOK on safety for women reporting
from conflict zones has been published
after a City graduate collated the
experiences of female war journalists.
Helena Williams (newspaper, 2011)
collected stories of violence and sexual
assault, as well as safety advice, for No
Woman’s Land, which she co-edited.
The book was inspired by last year’s
attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan in
Egypt, which led to the International
News Safety Institute (INSI) being
inundated with calls from female
journalists concerned about safety.
After graduation, Williams started as
a news assistant at INSI – an association
of news organisations, journalist support
groups and individuals dedicated to the
safety of news media staff.
Williams said: “Journalism is often
seen as a male-dominated culture. These
women are my heroes. They had so
many stories to tell. I know some male
journalists looked at it and said they had
never even thought of these things.”
Around 180 people attended the book’s
launch at Thomson Reuters’s Canary

The panel discuss safety at the launch of No Woman’s Land
Wharf headquarters in March.
A panel of journalists, chaired by BBC
presenter Lyse Doucet, discussed the
challenges faced by women working for
media organisations in conflict zones.
CNN’s Nima Elbagir said: “The last
time I was attacked in the field I felt
like I’d failed as a journalist. I found
it incredibly difficult to talk to anyone
because I felt as if it was a judgement on
my professionalism.”

Hannah Storm, deputy director of
INSI, co-edited the book with Williams.
Her experience of reporting from the
Haiti earthquake as a single mother with
a young child informed the project. She
said: “I saw journalists struggling to get
the story out because of the horrendous
situations we were working in.”
Profits from the book will be reinvested
to support female journalists working in
conflict zones.
POPPY MCPHERSON

Obituary: Dr Frederic Hunter
THE recipient of City’s first PhD in
journalism has died at the age of 77.
Dr Frederic Hunter, who went on to
become a pioneer of British independent
broadcasting, completed his PhD in
1984 under the supervision of broadcast
historian Lord Asa Briggs and Sir Harold
Evans.
The title of his thesis was Grub Street
and Academia: the Relationship Between
Journalism and Education, 1880-1940,
with Special Reference to the London
University Diploma for Journalism,
1919-1939.
Born in Gateshead in 1934, Dr Hunter
was the son of a mining engineer and a
hairdresser. His academic ability won
him a scholarship to Wycliffe College
in Gloucestershire and then a place at
Cambridge University, where he studied
14 /

economics and moral sciences.
In 1973, Dr Hunter joined the country’s
first licensed independent radio station,
London Broadcasting Company (LBC),
as assistant editor.
His passion for radio led him to create
the first broadcast journalism course at
what was then the London College of
Printing in 1977.
At the time of his death, Dr Hunter had
just finished the final corrections to his
book, Hacks and Dons: Teaching at the
London University Journalism School,
1919-1939, its Origins, Development
and Influence. The book is due to be
published this spring.
He is survived by Jill, his wife of 53
years, his daughter Joanna, son Kit and
grandchildren Caitlin, Ailish, Conall
and Jessica.
SOPHIA HEATH

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
wins XCity Award 2012
THIS year’s XCity Award has been
won
by
Lourdes
Garcia-Navarro
(international,
1998),
a
foreign
correspondent covering the Middle East
for US broadcaster National Public
Radio (NPR).
Garcia-Navarro has reported on the
Arab Spring, which she called “one of
the most extraordinary experiences I’ve
ever had as a journalist”.
The XCity Award is given to a former
student who has made an outstanding
contribution to journalism in the past
year, affecting how news and features
are written or distributed.
Five other City alumni were shortlisted
for the £500 prize. Their work covers
a range of specialisms including data
journalism, investigative work and
online communities.
Garcia-Navarro was among the first
western reporters to enter Libya after
the uprising. She said: “I was the first
journalist that many of these people had
seen. They were crying and hugging us
and just absolutely ecstatic that we were
there to tell their story.”
Reflecting on the deaths of Marie
Colvin, Tim Hetherington and Chris
Hondros, she said it had been a “a really
painful year for the community who

report in the Middle East”.
The sexual assault on Lara Logan
in Tahrir Square highlighted the risks
faced by women journalists in the Arab
Spring. But Garcia-Navarro said being a
female reporter had also opened doors.
“You get to go into the back rooms
where the women are, you get to talk to
them and tell their stories.”
Garcia-Navarro said she did not think
of herself as a war reporter: “We give
a voice to people who might otherwise
not have it... The fact that we may face
danger on the way is incidental.”
Studying at City influenced GarciaNavarro’s career path, she said: “Mixing
with so many people from different
countries made me realise that I wanted
to be a foreign correspondent.”
Prior to reporting for NPR, she worked
for the BBC World Service, Associated
Press and Voice of America. She is now
based in Jerusalem.
Professor George Brock, one of the
judges, said: “Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
is a wonderful advocate for City… She
has an approach to journalism that is
courageous, pragmatic and human. And
she has been in the midst of some of the
biggest events in world news over the
last 18 months.”
DAISY WYATT

for her investigation for Chemist and
Druggist that uncovered over £5m in
government payment errors. She was
praised for “lifting the lid on a frankly
unglamorous topic, using FOIs and a
healthy grasp of statistics to expose
government errors and subsequent
cover-up over NHS payments.”

Ramita Navai (broadcast, 2002)

for Undercover Syria, her film for
Channel 4’s Unreported World series.
Navai spent two weeks living with
anti-regime activists in some of the
most dangerous parts of Syria.

Ben Whitelaw (newspaper, 2011)

for his work as communities editor
at The Times, where worked on the
“Cities fit for cycling” campaign. He
also co-founded Wannabe Hacks, a
website for aspiring journalists.

Marianne Bouchart
(international, 2011) for her work as
a data journalist. In April 2011 she
founded the Data Journalism Blog.
The site gets 15,000 hits per month
from readers in 58 countries.

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

(international, 2011) for his work as
Iran correspondent at The Guardian,
where he has covered stories on the
country’s nuclear threat, elections
and human rights abuses.
Listen to interviews with the nominees
and find out more by visiting our website:
www.xcity-magazine.com
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 15:00:54

Awards

Bryant nets Cudlipp prize for
gang culture investigation

“false leads and dead ends, and missing
a lot of sleep.” He said he was grateful
to the Evening Standard editors and his
City tutors for their support.
Ann McFerran, senior lecturer on the
newspaper MA, said: “Ben is a brilliant
news reporter and feature writer. His
articles on gang culture demonstrated

the colour, detail and strong interviews
needed for a great feature.
“These articles had a strong news
peg, particularly as the riots happened
shortly before they were published. This
was a much deserved win.”
Bryant is now a trainee reporter at
The Daily Telegraph.
DAVID WOODE

Trio take over at magazine
editors awards

Starkey’s war reports claim
Kurt Schork honours

Pensions reporter strikes
gold at financial awards

CITY alumni scooped three prizes at
the British Society of Magazine Editors
Awards on 9 November 2011.
Ben Preston (newspaper, 1987), who
has edited Radio Times since 2009, won
Editor of the Year in the Entertainment
and Celebrity Magazines category.
Rachel Richardson (newspaper, 2002),
editor of Fabulous, took home the Fiona
Macpherson New Editor of the Year
award, while Anna Winston (magazine,
2007) won the prize for Website Editor of
the Year for her work at BDonline. MR

JEROME Starkey (newspaper, 1994)
won the 2011 Kurt Schork Award in the
freelance category for his reports from
Libya and Afghanistan. The awards,
held in London in November, honour
journalists who cover foreign news.
Starkey, a former Sun reporter and
stringer for The Times, won the prize for
two reports from Afghanistan and one
from Libya, which were published in The
Times and The Scotsman.
The judges said Starkey had “clearly
taken high risks to get his stories”. NW

MARK Cobley (newspaper, 2005) has
picked up two awards for his work on
the Financial News website. Cobley won
News Journalist of the Year at the State
Street Awards, and Trade Journalist of
the Year at the Investment Management
Association Awards.
After a brief spell at Bloomberg News,
Cobley joined Financial News as a graduate trainee and is now pensions editor.
He has twice won State Street’s Pensions Journalist of the Year award, in
2009 and 2010. ER

16 /

IMAGE: TONI KNEVITT

THE prestigious Hugh Cudlipp Award
for student journalism has been won by
a recent City graduate for his articles on
London gang culture.
Ben Bryant (newspaper, 2011) picked
up the £1,000 prize at the London College
of Communication on 23 January, after
his features were published in the
Evening Standard in September and
November 2011.
Lord Cudlipp’s widow Jodi presented
Bryant with the award during the
annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture.
His winning features explored the
culture of street gangs, and included
interviews with ex-gangsters who are
now on a mission to save youngsters
from a life of crime.
Bryant, the third City graduate to win
the award in four years, donated money
from the prize to south London-based
charity Kids Company and mentoring
programme Target Against Gangs.
He said: “It’s a huge honour to receive
the Hugh Cudlipp award. He’s a titan of
journalism and it’s humbling to receive a
prize in his name.
“I liked writing about people whose
exposure in the media tends to be muted
– or via a police report. I don’t think it’s
a topic I’ll be leaving behind.”
Bryant started putting in calls in
March 2011, and spent months chasing

MONIQUE RIVELLAND, NATASHA WYNARCZYK, EDWARD RANDELL

Ben Bryant – winner of the 2012 Hugh Cudlipp Award

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23/03/2012 14:57:55

Awards

Jenni Russell claims Orwell
Prize for political columns

Commendable alumni effort is
praised at British Press Awards

JENNI Russell (radio, 1985) won the
Orwell Prize for Journalism in May
2011. Her selection of writing included
columns on Gordon Brown’s temper
and taxing people with free university
degrees, published in The Sunday Times
and The Guardian.
The judges said: “Her empathy for
the world beyond Westminster gives
her writing an extra dimension often
lacking in political insiders. There is
an overriding humanity to her work,
whether she is covering the death throes
of the last Labour government or the
birth pangs of the Coalition.” NW

AMELIA Gentleman (newspaper, 1996)
and Ian Birrell (newspaper, 1985) were
both recognised at the British Press
Awards in March 2012.
Gentleman, a social affairs reporter at
The Guardian, was highly commended
in the Specialist Journalist of the Year
category while freelance writer Birrell,
was highly commended in the Foreign
Reporter category.
Sarah Nathan (newspaper, 1985),
Jane Fryer (newspaper, 2003), Rupert
Neate (newspaper, 2007) and George
Arbuthnott (investigative, 2009) were
also nominated. NW

Orwell Prize-winner
Jenni Russell

Magazine graduates sweep up
plaudits at PTC Awards
RAKESH Ramchurn (magazine, 2011)
was named the Periodicals Training
Council’s Most Promising Student at the
PTC New Talent Awards in February. It
was the fourth year in a row that a City
student has claimed the prize.
Nick Johnstone (magazine, 2009) won
two awards for his work on Property Week
– New Business Features Journalist and
the overall Grand Prix title.
Chemist and Druggist’s Zoe Smeaton
(magazine, 2007) won New Section
Editor of the Year. The news editor was
also nominated for the Paul Foot Award
for campaigning journalism. HL

Four broadcast award victories

Rakesh Ramchurn (middle):
PTC’s Most Promising Student

NATASHA WYNARCZYK, HELEN LAWSON, NICOLA MERRIFIELD, VESELA GLADICHEVA

Iran protest documentary gains
international honours
A FILM about the life of an Iranian
protester has landed a City alumnus a
prestigious Peabody Award.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan (international,
2011) won the award in May 2011 for the
HBO documentary For Neda, which he coproduced. The film tells the story of Neda
Agha-Soltan, who was killed during the
2009 Iranian election protests. The film
also won the TV Feature/Documentary
prize at the Foreign Press Association
Media Awards 2010.
The Peabodys, presented by the
University of Georgia in the US, are the
world’s oldest electronic media awards,
and among the most competitive prizes
in broadcasting. NW

CITY students scooped awards across
four categories in the Broadcast
Journalism Training Council’s Student
Awards 2010, announced last October.
Sophie
Clayton-Payne,
Rebecca
Hayman,
Ruairidh
Villar,
Kelly
Kerruish and Faaiza Ahmed (TV,
2010) were awarded first place in the
TV Documentary category for Khat:
Britain’s Silent High. The film focused
on the impact of legal drug Khat on
Somali communities in Britain.
First prize for Short Radio went to
Steffan Messenger (broadcast, 2010)
while Caitlin Kennedy and Basmah
Fahim (broadcast, 2010) won in the
Long TV category. NM

THE Guardian’s Datablog, edited by
Simon Rogers (newspaper, 1991), picked
up the prize for Best Use of New Media
at the Newspaper Awards last May.
Judges said the site was “head and
shoulders above the competition”. VG

Noble prizes for science writer

Simon Rogers (middle): recognised
for work on The Guardian datablog

SHAONI
Bhattacharya (periodical,
1999) was heralded at the Association of
British Science Writers Awards last July.
She won Best News Item for “Tracking
the rhino killers” and Best Feature for
“Murder in the bat cave”. Both pieces
were published in New Scientist. VG
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23/03/2012 14:57:56

Events

Dominic Grieve: “The press lost any sense of internal constraint”

Report recommends powerful
multi-platform press regulator
A NEW report on the future of the
British media was discussed at City in
a joint seminar with the Carnegie UK
Trust in March 2012.
The
Carnegie-sponsored
report,
Better Journalism in the Digital Age,
calls for “a new culture of integrity and
transparency within the media”.
It recommends a new, independent
press regulator to cover broadcast, print
and online news outlets, with the power
to impose financial penalties.
The seminar was chaired by Professor
George Brock, City’s head of journalism.
Panellists included the report’s author
Blair Jenkins, NUJ general secretary
Michelle Stanistreet, and City lecturers
Lis Howell and Stewart Purvis. NK
18 /

PTC launches inaugural
magazine masterclass
MORE than 120 students from 11
universities met at City for the first
Magazine Academy Live! event
in March 2012, organised by the
Periodicals Training Council (PTC).
The day-long event, presented by
a string of editors and publishers,
offered a masterclass on the challenges
faced by the publishing industry today.
Speakers included Gill Hudson,
editor of Reader’s Digest; Tim
Danton, editorial director at Dennis
Technology; Hugh Sleight, group editor
of FourFourTwo and Stuff; and Neil
Robinson, digital director at IPC Media.
The day concluded with a features
pitching exercise judged by Phil Hilton,
editorial director at Shortlist Media. PE

THE Attorney General, Dominic Grieve
QC MP, warned in a lecture hosted by
City that journalists were increasingly
flouting the laws of contempt of court.
Speaking in December 2011, Grieve
said that journalists too often ignored
their responsibilities when reporting on
criminal proceedings. Referring to the
media’s vilification of Chris Jefferies, the
former landlord of murdered landscape
architect Joanna Yeates, the Attorney
General said: “At times it seems to me
the press had lost any sense of internal
constraint and felt able, indeed entitled,
to print what they wished, shielded by the
mantra right of freedom of expression.”
Grieve, appointed by David Cameron
in May 2010, also warned journalists
and MPs against using parliamentary
privilege to defy privacy injunctions. He
said: “It is still an open question as to
whether something said in Parliament in
breach of a court order may be repeated
in the press.”
The Government’s chief legal adviser
also said the internet was not exempt
from contempt or libel laws.
Vesela Gladicheva

Time for new media approach
to Pakistan, says panel
YOUNG journalists must play a role in
challenging stereotypes when reporting
on Pakistani communities, said a panel
at City last November.
“Pakistan in the Media: Changing
the Narrative, bringing in New Voices
and Talent” was led by former visiting
professor Ziauddin Sardar.
Mobeen Azhar, assistant current
affairs producer at the BBC, stressed
the need for public service broadcasters
to produce programmes with crosscultural references for Pakistani and
British families, while Nayha Kalia,
editor of online magazine The Samosa,
called on the UK’s media to take “a more
rounded view” encompassing women’s
rights and community projects. NM

NADIA KHOMAMI, PETE ELLENDER, NIKKI MERRIFIELD

Image: lINDA nYLIND for the guardian

Ignore contempt laws at your
peril, Attorney General warns

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23/03/2012 14:58:47

Events
Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth / AFP / Getty Images

Film series showcases new
generation of homegrown
journalists in Africa
EMPOWERING African journalists to
report on their own countries was the
focus of an event celebrating investigative
journalism at City last November.
It included a screening of Africa
Investigates, a series of films by Insight
News and Al Jazeera English, which
gives African journalists the support
they need to tell their own stories.
African journalist and panel member
Sorious
Samura
said:
“Western
journalists have failed to cover Africa
because of political correctness. We
want to report stories in Africa without
holding back.” DWy
Julian Assange spoke about the global surveillance industry

MODERN journalism has become
“morally bankrupt”, according to the
journalist who uncovered the MPs
expenses scandal.
At a lecture on civic journalism last
October, Heather Brooke, author of The
Revolution will be Digitised, said that
journalism had “forgotten its heart,
its core function, which is serving the
public”, in favour of promoting business
and products. NW

The truth revealed about
Express split from PCC
RICHARD
Desmond’s
Express
Newspapers backed out of the Press
Complaints Commission because they
felt vilified over their coverage of the
Madeleine McCann story, the group’s
editorial director revealed at a seminar
at City in November 2011.
Paul Ashford was speaking at “Media
regulation – new ideas”, which was coorganised by the Reuters Institute for
the Study of Journalism (RISJ).
The seminar began with an address
by Lara Fielden, who introduced her
new RISJ report, Regulating for trust
in journalism, which argues for a new
coordinated form of regulation across
all media platforms. PM

Assange unveils secrets
of smartphone snooping
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange
announced the publication of 287
secret documents on the organisation’s
website during a press conference
held at City in December 2011.
The Spy Files project details the
global surveillance industry, which
Assange said had boomed since 9/11.

Khanfar describes government
crackdown on media in Egypt
WADAH Khanfar gave the 2011 James
Cameron Memorial Lecture at City,
entitled “Journalism and a world in
transition”, last October.
The former director-general of Al
Jazeera described how the network
overcame an attempted blackout to
cover the Egyptian revolution.
Khanfar, now president of think
tank The Sharq Forum, condemned the
media’s tendency to listen to political
authorities instead of the “collective
conscience”. He called for a coalition of
journalists and activists to “break the
wall of silence that certain governments
and centres of influence [endeavour] to
impose on sources of information”. ER

He revealed how intelligence
companies sold mass surveillance
devices for smartphones and Gmail,
allowing police and military authorities
to track users’ movements and intercept
their emails. He also warned the
audience they were “screwed” if they
used these products. Richard martin

Former chair defends PCC
in face of hacking criticism
THE former chair of the Press
Complaints
Commission
(PCC)
defended the watchdog in the wake of
the phone hacking scandal, in a guest
lecture at City last October.
In her lecture, titled “Changing
times and changing media regulation”,
Baroness Buscombe recognised the need
to strengthen the PCC’s powers.
She stressed the importance of press
freedom, but said editors and proprietors
should take greater responsibility
for wrongdoing.
She added that
the PCC should not duplicate police
investigations into criminal activity.
The PCC has since announced it will
be replaced by a new regulator. DWO
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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/ 19

23/03/2012 14:58:48

News analysis

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

W

ith class and race high
on the news agenda,
the drive to improve the
demographics of the UK’s
newsrooms has once again become a
major discussion point.
But as queues of wannabe hacks
apply for coveted MA courses, are
droves of promising but hard-up young
journalists being ignored?
It used to be that to become a
journalist, you would leave school and
cut your teeth on a local newspaper.
After a spell vox popping “outraged”
locals, exposing council corruption
and attending community events, you
would buy a one-way ticket to London
and start a new life working on a
national newspaper.
How times have changed.
With scores of local papers closing
or shedding their news teams, today’s
fledgling journalists either face months
of unpaid work placements or have
to fork out thousands of pounds for
postgraduate courses in the hope of
picking up a junior reporter role.
Where entry to the industry was once
based on merit, it seems that a degree
certificate and the size of your parents’
wallet are becoming increasingly
important when trying to get your foot
in the newsroom door.
It’s no secret that the UK’s top
journalism schools act as springboards
into the national press, but do rookie
reporters from wealthy backgrounds,
armed with degrees from the country’s
leading universities,
have an advantage
securing a place at
journalism school?
Data released
by City University
London has
revealed that
between 2007 and 2012 most students
enrolled on journalism MA courses
(excluding the international MA)
attended a Russell Group institution.
The Russell Group is comprised of
24 public research-based universities.
It includes many of the UK’s leading
higher education institutions like
Warwick, Bristol and Leeds as well as
Oxford and Cambridge.
Of the 989 students for whom data

A closed door for the poor
As the path to newsrooms becomes ever more
costly the industry risks becoming an elite club
argue David Woode and Natasha Wynarczyk
was supplied, 713 were educated
at a Russell Group university. This
represents 72% of all City journalism
graduates. The tally does not include
85 who attended higher education
institutions outside the UK, and seven
who were unknown.
Oxbridge made up the top two
universities previously attended by
City MA students,
making up 22% of
graduates in the last
five years.
In 2006, The
Sutton Trust, an
educational charity
which aims to
improve social mobility, produced a
report on the educational backgrounds
of the country’s leading journalists.
Findings revealed that 81% of those
prominent journalists had a first
degree, and over half were educated at
either Oxford or Cambridge.
Dr Lee Elliot Major, director of
research and policy at The Sutton
Trust, said the trust was alarmed
that XCity’s findings showed no

‘In the media the
salt of the earth
have become the
scum of the earth’

20 /

improvement in access.
“We remain deeply concerned that
journalism is in danger of becoming
a profession increasingly dominated
by a privileged elite that is highly
unrepresentative of society as a whole,”
said Dr Major.
“We believe that media organisations
need to do much more to attract talent
from all backgrounds,” he added.
Joe Baden, head of Open Book,
a widening participation scheme
at Goldsmiths University, believes
working class people would be better
represented in the media if access to
education was fairer.
He said: “One of the things that
worries me is the portrayal of the
working classes in the mass media,
especially with the hunt for benefits
cheats and programmes like Jeremy
Kyle. In the media the salt of the earth
have become the scum of the earth.
“There would certainly be a more
understanding approach if we lived
in a world where editors weren’t from
Oxbridge. We need a fairer education
system to combat this.” ●

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

Access_Yasmin Spread.indd 2

23/03/2012 14:37:50

Comment

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
explains why training
schemes will never be
as effective as positive
discrimination

A

frican and Asian people are
not congenitally more stupid
than the white men who
dominate the industry. They
certainly want jobs in journalism, so
the problem must be the people in
power, the gatekeepers. They can’t see
black nation journalists doing what
white men from Oxbridge do.
It is good that there are black and
Asian news readers on our screens.
But an impression has been created
– with the kinds of faces that we see
on the television, nobody can say that
nothing has changed. The big bosses
start saying, and believing, “We’ve
done it. Why are
you complaining?
Isn’t there Trevor
McDonald?”
The situation has
definitely improved
since I got into
journalism. If it
hadn’t I would have cut my throat by
now. When I started racism was overt,
especially in the print sector. At least
now some editors remind themselves
that they must be good and employ a
few black and ethnic minority writers.
But even those few that do get jobs
are rarely allowed to realise their
potential. It is always assumed that
a black journalist wants to do black
stories and that they can’t possibly
be interested in, for example, Lucian
Freud. In an odd way we also feel a
sense of obligation – if we don’t do
those stories, who will?
There are very few journalists in
the newspaper industry who have the
freedom to write about whatever they
want. I am lucky, but after 17 years
of writing columns I think I’m still
the only weekly political columnist of
colour on the main comment pages of
any British national. That shocks me.
Print media is so much worse
than broadcast because jobs are very

‘We are not
congenitally
more stupid
than white men’
rarely advertised. There is a problem
with word-of-mouth recruitment
and nepotism. I cannot tell you how
many journalists in the last year have
asked me to give their children work
experience. Not one of them is black or
Asian because they are not there.
People often talk about attitude
change as a solution, but I don’t think
editors need to change their attitudes.
I don’t want anyone to
like us, I really don’t
care about that. They
live in a democracy
and they can think
what they like. It’s
their behaviour that
needs changing. I
just want black and Asian people to be
given the chance to prove themselves.
That’s why I really believe in positive
discrimination, at least for a set
number of years like they
did in America.
This country gets
very exercised when
you suggest that
we need to change
something, but we do.
Every big institution
should look closely
at its workforce –
if working class
people, disabled
people, women
or the elderly
are underrepresented
then the
positive
discrimination
should be
for them.

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

‘Editors need
to wake up and
think about what
they’re missing’

It doesn’t have to be about race. But
without a real push we’ll be talking
about it for generations. You can’t talk
and do nothing. Talking has become a
wonderful way of doing nothing.
It annoys me when I hear young
black and Asian people saying “I don’t
want to be a token”. Stop it. Be a token.
I was a token. But once you’re in there,
use your identity and prove yourself.
Don’t be precious about it. You need to
lose pride. I’ve had a very long struggle
in my life to do what I am doing now.
Some white men have helped me along
the way and I have often had to put my
pride aside. It hasn’t been easy.
By not having a range of independent
minded people, all you get is “group
think”. For example, I can’t stand the
fact that we are all supposed to think
the Queen is wonderful and bow, bow,
bow to her. People keep introducing me
as “controversial” but what they mean
is I don’t join the group think.
Some media diversity schemes
have been quite successful. But
in general these schemes say
little more than: “We’ll train
them.” There are plenty of
bright young people from
ethnic minorities who are
already good enough. It’s
not about training them,
it’s about giving them
the job.
Editors need to wake
up, wake up and think
about what they’re
missing. ●
As told to
Monique Rivalland

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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/

21

23/03/2012 14:37:50

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is a not for profit organisation based at
City University London.
Funded by The David and Elaine Potter Foundation, the Bureau conducts investigations in the public
interest.
Vist our website: www.thebureauinvestigates.com
Friend us on Facebook: facebook.com/thebureauinvestigates
Follow us on Twitter: @TBIJ
The Bureau is committed to the training and education of young journalists. City alumni currently at
the Bureau include:

Alice Ross, journalist

pp22, 23, 24, 25.indd 2

Emma Slater, journalist

Jack Serle, researcher

Jamie Thunder, PhD student

23/03/2012 14:19:01

Features

Quentin Letts Political sketch writer, Daily Mail
My worst habits? What is this? An
extension of the ruddy Leveson Inquiry?
You want me to break down, blubbing,
about bias, inaccuracy, sloth and overreliance on rumour? Guilty as charged! I
dislike lunch. That’s a drawback. But one
failing that really shames me is my tendency
to use sloppy, extraneous commas.

MY WORST HABIT
We asked some of Britain’s best-known journalists to confess their failings and
foibles. The results are in, and they’re not pretty – from not taking notes and relying
on Wikipedia to recycling old jokes. Compiled by Kate Lloyd and Nicola Merrifield
Stewart Purvis
Former editor-inchief, ITN

Assuming that
everybody was as
obsessive about working
long hours as me.
During the 1991 Gulf
War I once spent five
days in the office without leaving the
building, sleeping in chairs and on
the floor. Only when mouth ulcers
developed on the sixth day did it strike
me that this was slightly unusual
behaviour.

ImageS: The Guardian

Elizabeth Pears
Senior reporter, The Voice

As well as having an addiction to
dashes (come on – who doesn’t love a
dramatic pause?), I’m guilty of getting
too involved with one story. Research
is essential, but there’s a reason the
journalism gods invented the follow-up.
The best copy is simple and sticks to
the angle.

Andy Capper
Global editor, Vice

Leaving that awkward question
unasked. Also, being drunk or on drugs
during interviews doesn’t usually help.
Although if interviewees are on drugs,
it can help a wee bit. See pretty much
the whole of my career at NME. ►

Mary Ann
Sieghart
Columnist,
The Independent

Like most journalists, I
can’t function without
a deadline. But I take
this to extremes. I simply can’t bring
myself to start writing until a couple of
hours before the deadline. I am in awe
of people who can write a piece a day in
advance. How do they do it?
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

pp22, 23, 24, 25.indd 3

/ 23

27/03/2012 12:39:41

Features
Image: The Guardian

Luke Turner Founder and
associate editor, The Quietus

Being far too much of an enthusiast, in the
vein of a tram-spotter or twitcher, when
thinking of things to write about. This is
a bad habit developed over 13 years in
music journalism, where there are no grey
areas, and everything is either worthy of
adoration or a violent and mustard-coated
shoe pie. The pitching process is always a
victim of distraction. Those lucrative ideas
for B2B publishers are forgotten in favour
of suggestions of on-the-ground coverage
of fiery Viking festivals, or obscure railway
lines in the North of England.

Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes) Blogger

On the Guido Fawkes blog we do 50 or so stories a week. We bang them out
as fast as we can type them and revise them afterwards, so our first draft of
history is often in mangled prose. It undermines our authority when the text
is riddled with typos. That bugs me when I look back later.

Alison Gow Editor, Wales on
Sunday and Wales Online

Adam Tinworth
Content strategist
I’m a deadline junkie. It’s
the magic ingredient that
transforms writing from a
chore into a rush of pure
creative pleasure.

Jonathan Munro
Deputy editor, ITV News

The total failure to leave work at work.
It’s difficult to see the BlackBerry flashing
without reading the incoming emails. Most
of them are not at all urgent, but you don’t
know that until you open them. It drives my
family a bit mad.
Image: Rankin

It’s changed over the years. As a trainee, it
was a chronic inability to spell. Eventually,
some of the sub editors got together and
made me a spellings book, which shamed
me into improving. Now, my worst habit
is assuming everyone understands what
I’m talking about. Phrases like “deeper inlinking” and “open data curation” won’t win
me many supporters in meetings.

James Ashton
Head of business,
Evening Standard
and The Independent

Pip McCormac
Commissioning editor,
The Sunday Times Style
When I became a journalist I imagined a
very ordered life: an up-to-date Rolodex, a
filing cabinet arranged in alphabetical order,
and perhaps a couple of healthy snacks. The
reality? A contacts book full of names that
have either dropped out or dropped off, piles
of press releases and books that threaten
to avalanche all over my keyboard, and a
drawer stuffed with Berocca, Kit Kats, and a
couple of bent paperclips. I wish I was in the
habit of tidying up, but who has the time?
24 /

I used to struggle to say no to
a meeting. I’m more selective
now because I have less time,
but I always wonder whether
I’ve turned something down
that could have been useful.

Peter Grunert
Editor, Lonely Planet
magazine
One of the challenges as an
editor is knowing when your
interests aren’t quite the same
as your reader’s. I studied
zoology and so constantly
have to resist the urge to turn
each issue into a procession of
peculiar creatures.

Kate Reardon Editor, Tatler

My worst habit as a journalist is identical
to everyone else’s worst habit as a student,
banker or anyone with or without a job
– faffing about on Twitter, Facebook and
StumbleUpon when I should be working.

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

pp22, 23, 24, 25.indd 4

23/03/2012 14:19:05

Simon Barnes
Chief sports writer, The Times

Running ahead of myself. I
can get really fired up by an
idea, rattle it off to the team,
and then merrily waltz off
to think of my next brilliant
idea, leaving everyone else to
do the bulk of the work.

Giles Coren
Columnist, The Times

Never taking notes, never taping anything,
never bothering to make phone calls if
I can possibly avoid it, and just making
everything up because it’s so much easier to
write unencumbered by facts.

Simon Hattenstone
Feature writer, The
Guardian

I’m not subtle at asking
questions likely to be regarded
with hostility. When I was
interviewing Leonardo
DiCaprio I said: “Can I be
honest with you? I think your
early films were great, but the
ones that came afterwards
were a bag of shite.” I ended
up getting thrown out of that
interview.

Most people think that the great vice of
journalism is making stuff up. It’s not.
It’s repeating your own jokes. A pleasant
phrase comes to you. Followed by a vague
doubt: haven’t I said that before? Was it in
conversation? Or did I put it in a piece years
ago? Or for that matter, the other week?
Journos use clichés when they need a wellworked phrase in a hurry. Even if you do all
you can to avoid them, you can find yourself
becoming your own cliché.
Image: nick eagle

Gill Hudson Editor,
Reader’s Digest

Image: The Guardian

Image: Channel Five

Features

Mary Anne Hobbs
Music journalist and DJ, XFM

Combining acute neurosis (mainly over the
reliability of floppy disks), Jack Daniels,
jet lag, Thai diet pills, chronic posture,
Marlboro Reds and oysters with Motley
Crue for breakfast... with the irrational fear
that I’m not able to quote Dostoevsky as I’ve
only been in education to GCSE level.

Relying too heavily on Wikipedia. If I’m
rushing off to a television set visit, I’ll
sometimes just print out the Wiki on the
actors to read on the train, as well as
previous interviews they’ve done. But as
every journo should know, Wiki lies!

My iPhone addiction.
Emailing world domination
plans to your publisher after
kissing your wife goodnight
isn’t a healthy habit. I should
develop an app that switches
the thing off after dinner.
My long-field vision would
probably improve, too.

Fraser Nelson
Editor, The Spectator

Not knowing when to stop. God knows how
many hours (months?) of my life I could save
if I could work dispassionately on columns
– rather than agonise, re-read and stay up
until 1am turns to 2am in what seems like
10 minutes. I have a theory that you get two
types of writers: natural, and constructed.
I’m constructed. It’s not second nature to
me. But spend 50% more time on a piece,
and it becomes just 10% better. Why bother?
When I grow up, I want to be able to say:
that’s good enough, time for Borgen now. ●
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM /

pp22, 23, 24, 25.indd 5

25

23/03/2012 14:19:07

Features

COULD A FREEBIE
PUT YOU BEHIND BARS?
A free holiday or a case of bubbly may lead to jail under new bribery
laws. Sophia Heath asks whether this spells the end of press perks

T

IMAGE: KATE LLOYD

here are many joys of being a
journalist: making a difference,
knowing the inside story, mixing
with famous and fascinating
people and of course, free stuff.
In the past journalists have been
laden with gifts from PRs. Some were
extravagant, such as all expenses
paid trips to the Maldives, or seats in
corporate boxes at Twickenham. Others
were more run-of-the-mill, like a tray
of cakes from Tesco or, as one farming
magazine received recently, a bag of
fresh meat.
Whatever the gift, for most hacks the
freebie has long been an unofficial yet
widely acknowledged perk of being a
journalist – until now.
The combination of recent antibribery laws and a newfound sensitivity
over journalistic practices in the
wake of the phone hacking scandal
means freebies are under attack and
there is growing anxiety within some
newsrooms. Earlier this year, one
national paper’s fashion magazine
imposed a £200 limit on free gifts.
Other publications, including The
Times and The Daily Mirror, have
warned staff that freebies could be seen
as bribes.
Some editors believe that accepting
gifts in exchange for copy, however

indirectly, is wrong. John Dale, former
editor of Take A Break, believes that
when writers are whisked away on free
holidays in exchange for editorial space
it amounts to “small scale corruption”.
During his editorship, Dale saw this
first hand – he was invited to dinners
in swanky London restaurants by
Disney, and along with other editors of
top magazines was
given free entry
to the opening
of Disneyland
Paris. He also
spoke against
supermarkets
such as Asda
handing out £30 gift vouchers at press
conferences, saying they are essentially
giving away money to journalists.
Andy Capper, global editor of Vice,
says it can be hard for journalists to
resist “pushy PRs” offering incentives
“to write about somebody who is
inherently terrible or boring”. He adds:
“Free dinners and press trips belong in
the 1990s.”
But could companies and journalists
now be straying into illegality?
The Bribery Act, introduced
in July 2011, defines bribery
as giving a financial or other
advantage with the intention of
tempting the recipient to abuse
a position of trust. Either party
who gives or receives the bribe
can get a maximum 10-year
prison sentence and an

‘Free dinners and
press trips belong
in the 1990s’

unlimited
fine.
26 /

pp 26-27.indd 2

Though the law is still in its infancy,
it could have serious implications for
journalists in the future. Media lawyer
Ben Whitelock warns that journalists
need to be aware that accepting free
gifts could be considered a breach of the
Act, but notes: “it’s going to be difficult
to prove from an evidential perspective
in a piece of editorial”.
Editors are
clearly taking the
threat seriously.
At Total Film,
where journalists
used to receive
gifts ranging from
replica golden
snitches from Harry Potter films to
business class flights in order to attend
film premieres, all staff have been
briefed on the Bribery Act.
Yet despite the warnings, the freebie
bandwagon still seems to be rolling,
with journalists continuing to enjoy
the high life. Earlier this year, Ferrari
once again laid on a lavish Formula
One launch where a select group of
journalists partied with the team in
Italy. Tom Cary, The Daily Telegraph’s
F1 correspondent, was not secretive
about attending, writing on his blog:
“I’m out in Italy on Ferrari’s annual
media shindig in the Italian Dolomites
and the sun is shining.”
But some think the status quo can’t
survive the Leveson Inquiry. Roy
Greenslade, The Guardian’s media
commentator, says: “One of the
positive things to come out of this
whole negative drama is the way
we are now looking again at how
we operate and the
ethical code by which
we work.”
If Greenslade
is right, the
days of exotic
holidays,
jaunts to
Twickenham
and bags full
of rump steaks
may soon
be a distant
memory. ●

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

23/03/2012 14:23:29

HAVING
THE

LAST
LAUGH

He stole the show at
Leveson, his magazine’s
sales are at a 25-year high
– Ian Hislop has plenty of
reasons to be cheerful.
Edward Randell talks to
Fleet Street’s odd man out

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM
pp 26-27.indd 3

/ 27

23/03/2012 14:23:33

Features

PREVIOUS IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

A

t a time when journalists sit
somewhere between bankers
and traffic wardens in the
public’s esteem, there is one
hack who can apparently do no wrong.
As editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop
has long been a scourge of media
hypocrisy, but he won the respect of his
peers with a barnstorming defence of
press freedom at the Leveson Inquiry.
On the long-running panel quiz Have
I Got News For You, he still draws
viewers, laughs, and a handsome wage.
And his beloved Eye, which last year
celebrated its 50th birthday, is enjoying
its strongest sales for decades. The man
at the helm of Britain’s most subversive
magazine is at risk of becoming part of
the establishment. How does he do it?
There is only one place to go for
answers. On a soggy March morning,
two days after the clamour of press
day, Private Eye’s Soho headquarters
are eerily hushed. The musty Carlisle
Street townhouse has been the Eye’s
home since it decamped from Greek
Street – two streets away – in 1984.
Staff grumbled about the move: for all
its irreverent energy, the magazine
tends to resist change. Its design has
barely altered in half a century; its first
and second editors, Christopher Booker
and Richard Ingrams, still come in
every fortnight. No wonder there were
mutinous growls when in 1986 Ingrams
appointed Hislop, a 25-year-old upstart,
as editor.
In the front office, I have just settled
into a leather chair – once owned by
the Eye’s late nemesis Robert Maxwell
– when there is a thump of feet on the
wooden staircase. A small figure in a
colourful tie bounds in. “I’m Ian,” he
beams. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
We dash upstairs, into the office
Hislop has occupied for 25 years.
Today his staff idolise him, but the
old guard took some convincing. Two,
Nigel Dempster and Peter McKay, were
sacked after a failed putsch; others felt
28 /

that by hiring “qualified people” Hislop
would ruin the magazine’s artfully
dishevelled aesthetic.
But the piles of books around the
room suggest the shabby chic is very
much intact. A can of shaving foam
sits atop a shelf. On the desk, where a
computer should be, is a sheaf of the
pink paper on which Hislop writes
jokes – and angry memos.
The jokes were Hislop’s entry point
into the clubby world of the Eye. He
began contributing as an Oxford
undergraduate, after interviewing
Ingrams for his student magazine
Passing Wind. At that meeting, the
editor-to-be asked his mentor: “Would
you define yourself as a journalist?”
So, three decades later, would Hislop
define himself as a journalist?
“Richard definitely would,” he says.
“I’m less happy to do so. I’m probably
a writer, and I fell into it, which in a
sense has been an advantage for me
because I really rate journalists. I
immediately hired Francis Wheen and
Paul Foot and all the best journalists
I could find, without thinking ‘I’m as
good as you are’.”
Hislop is level-headed about the
press’s vices. He is surprised by the
sheer extent of the revelations coming
out of the Leveson Inquiry, but not
exactly shocked. “We have spent 40
years running two pages called ‘Street
of Shame’ – it’s not as though we
haven’t noticed what’s happening at the
bottom end of journalism. But I think
the fact they were at it, all of them –
the idea that this was run of the mill is
quite surprising.”
He stresses the fact that many of the
practices under scrutiny are already
against the law. “You aren’t allowed
to hack into people’s phones. There
are limits to intrusion of privacy. You
are not allowed to harass people. All
these things are illegal and should be
prosecuted with some vigour by the
police, who didn’t do it because they

were in bed with News International.”
In some cases, he adds, dodgy
methods can be justified in the public
interest – The Sunday Times’s FIFA
investigation, runner-up for the Eye’s
Paul Foot Award, relied on blagging.
More worrying is the fact that “the
tabloid press was pretty much
operating under its own rules, and if
you disagreed with them they turned
you over”. Hislop experienced this firsthand when, while feuding with Piers
Morgan, the then Daily Mirror editor
stationed a photographer outside his
home. “It’s very instructive for anyone
in the business to have a tabloid ‘doing’
you, just to see what that means in
terms of personal revenge.”
When Hislop appeared before
Leveson, he was grilled on his decision
not to sign up to the ill-fated Press

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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23/03/2012 14:24:41

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

Features

Complaints Commission. He predicts,
like most pundits, that the Inquiry
will recommend a stronger regulatory
body to monitor press practices. Would
Private Eye join it?
“I have difficulty
with that because
I feel we end up
in front of a judge
anyway. You know,
at the Leveson
Inquiry – I’m
standing in front
of a judge and a QC and they’re saying,
‘we could have these independent
people who wouldn’t be from the press
who would judge what’s happened’ and
I’m thinking, ‘yeah – they’re called
judges’. I haven’t been convinced yet.”
Richard Desmond is the only other
major media player to opt out. “That

is embarrassing – I admit that,” says
Hislop. “That is embarrassing.”
Private Eye is no stranger to the
courts: in the early years of his
editorship Hislop faced a constant
stream of libel
writs. But
several landmark
victories by The
Guardian helped
change the law
in the press’s
favour. “If you
meet a libel barrister they’ll tell you
they’re on their uppers – the glory days
have gone,” Hislop says. “It’s less of a
problem for us now, but we write about
it a lot because it’s hit scientists and
peer-reviewed journals.
“It’s become a genuine worry, in
that you can’t seem to be rude about

‘I had a phone call
with Andrew Marr.
I said, you shouldn’t
be doing this’

anyone’s research anymore.”
In the last year, the magazine’s
biggest legal bills have come from
fighting privacy injunctions taken
out by public figures. Andrew Marr
and Jeremy Clarkson both eventually
dropped theirs, partly due to pressure
from Private Eye. Did Hislop get a
Christmas card from Andrew Marr?
“Er, no. Though he was pretty good
about it when he came clean and said
‘I shouldn’t have done this and it’s
embarrassing that I did’. I had a phone
conversation with him during it all,
saying you just shouldn’t be doing this.
It was a two-day story… The whole
thing was just silly.
“When Clarkson dropped his
injunction and said ‘at least I can look
Hislop in the eye’, I was quite flattered,
because it just means – oh come on, ►
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23/03/2012 14:24:44

Features
IMAGES: THE GUARDIAN

you know you shouldn’t be doing this.
You guys are journalists who are out
there writing columns and dishing it
out, interviewing people who matter.”
Yet Hislop has always been reluctant
to write about celebrities’ sex lives, and
on becoming editor he took out most of
the magazine’s “legover” content.
“I don’t really like gossip,” he says.
“Sex is involved in some stories, it is
the motive, it is how lots of human
activity works and I’m happy to write
about it. What I didn’t want to do
was run a column that basically said,
‘guess whose marriage is failing’. It
was all about minor members of the
aristocracy, it’s now about people on
telly who I don’t care about. The cast of
TOWIE [The Only Way is Essex] – I’d
love to care, but I don’t. And I’m not
sure our readers want that from us.”
Ah yes, the readers. ABC figures for
the second half of 2011 show Private
Eye’s fortnightly circulation at 228,112
– its highest since 1986. Though he
scoffs at the notion of market research,
Hislop says that Eye readers need to
be literate, well-informed and “in some
way questioning of what’s going on”.
He has little time for readers who
don’t see the funny side. “When I
was younger I used to actually cancel
people’s subscriptions, pay the money
and tell them:
‘Sorry, you can’t
read the mag any
more.’ I’m not
quite that mad
now.”
The magazine’s
robust sales defy the received wisdom
that print is dying. “I don’t believe
that,” Hislop says firmly. “And I don’t
want to believe it. I feel that sort of
pessimism is part of why it’s dying.
“I may be wrong, I know we’re only
a small magazine, but the decision we
made early on was that this stuff costs,
and if you want really good journalism
and beautifully drawn cartoons and
people who are genuinely funny, you’ve
got to pay them. And I’m not giving it
to you for free. Any of it. Or as little as
humanly possible.”
Private Eye’s website remains
minimal, and Hislop scorns the “ripoff” of free journalism. “That probably

makes me seem like a ridiculous
capitalist figure who’s driven by greed,
but I just want to pay everyone here.”
The mention of chequebooks brings
us neatly to Have I Got News For You.
Before his ignominious exit from the
show, Angus Deayton reportedly used
to command £50,000 per episode. Is
that what Hislop is on?
“It’s not what I’m on. Looked good
though! I mean, we are extremely well
paid after 21 years of doing the show.
But then we fill Friday evenings for
them, and then Saturday, and then a
repeat and whatever. So I don’t feel
guilty about it.”
He is friendly with his sparring
partner Paul Merton, although they
don’t socialise between series. “And he
is on record as
thinking I am
a stuffed-shirt
twit. There
is a certain
element of
class war
which keeps the programme going.”
Hislop is perfectly happy to play
the toff to Merton’s oik. Educated at
Ardingly College and then Oxford, he is
a churchgoing Anglican and a small“c” conservative fond of the trappings
of Middle England. He admires the
Victorians for their “combination of
what I think is a genuine moral purpose
with a sort of madness”, and argues,
as he points to Swift and Byron, that
satire need not be politically radical:
“There’s always a slight disappointment
when you do an interview with young
people and they think satirists are
members of the Socialist Workers’
Party from 1968.”

‘Paul Merton is on
record saying I am a
stuffed-shirt twit’

30 /

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23/03/2012 14:24:45

Nonetheless, he bristles slightly at
the charge that Private Eye is run by
public schoolboys.
“I usually say that I refuse to employ
anyone here who didn’t go to a good
school,” he quips. “No, there are loads
of public schoolboys here – that’s
absolutely true.” Hislop mentions
Nick Newman (his contemporary at
Ardingly), Craig Brown (Eton) and
Francis Wheen (Harrow).
“The fact is, they are brilliant
writers and journalists and I don’t
feel embarrassed by that. But Jane
Mackenzie, as you can gather from her
name, is not a public schoolboy, nor
is Heather Mills – so, yes, we do have
women here, and lots of them went
to state schools, and there are other
people here who did.
“People have been saying to me most

of my life, that’s public school
humour, or that’s sixth form
humour, or fifth form humour,
and alright, yes, it probably is.”
He pauses. “Undergraduate humour, if
they’re feeling generous.”
There is certainly something of the
schoolboy about his gleeful ruffling
of politicians’ feathers. Tony Blair’s
consistent irritation with the magazine
was “very pleasing – that’s what you
want to hear”. Conversely, it was
“disappointing” when MPs lined up to
praise the Eye on its 50th birthday.
Hislop criticises the current
generation of politicians for their lack
of experience outside the Westminster
bubble: “You watch Miliband, Clegg
and Cameron
standing next to
each other and
they’re more or
less the same
guy. They’re
a sort of well
educated, managerial section.” But
he praises the work of Conservative
MP David Davis and Lib Dem junior
transport minister Norman Baker.
Is he a cynic? “No, I’ve always
denied that. I’m a sceptic. Cynics think
everything is pointless – I don’t. I
believe in targeting, and I think that’s
the other thing that you’re rewarded for
by your readers.”
It is the fear of losing readers’ trust

that motivates the furious pink
memos he sends to staff. When did
he last lose his temper? “Probably the
last issue.” Is it a regular occurrence?
“I can get quite stroppy. I don’t like
getting stuff wrong, and I don’t like
the journalists getting stuff wrong, so
I do get a bit shirty if I think, ‘oh, shit.’
I don’t like the idea that someone can
write in and say: ‘You don’t do any
work, you haven’t checked anything.’
It’s partly vanity, I know.”
There have been missteps. The Eye
supported Dr Andrew Wakefield’s
discredited research linking the
MMR vaccine to autism, which Hislop
acknowledges “wasn’t our finest hour”.
He also regrets fighting a court case
about abuse at Bryn Estyn boys’ home
in Wales: “One of our witnesses killed
himself after the case, because he
thought no one had believed him, and
it was utterly horrible and humourless
and, ah, just grim… So, yeah, I’ve been
doing the job for 25 years and I’ve got
stuff wrong, and there are things that
were a bit ghastly.
“But, you know, it isn’t academia.
Journalism is sort of messy… We’d all
like to imagine it’s a world of writing
high-minded editorials and advising the
cabinet,
but some
of it is
messier
than that.”
For
all his
self-deprecation, there is no doubt that
Hislop is fiercely proud of Private Eye’s
achievements. The phone rings: he is
late for a TV interview. He grabs his
overcoat and we hurry downstairs,
pausing by a wall of fallen Eye heroes:
Foot, Willie Rushton, Peter Cook.
“That’s who you’ve got looking over
your shoulder,” he says. And with that,
he darts off into the streets of Soho. ●
Additional reporting by Rebecca Lloyd

‘I can get quite
stroppy. I don’t like
getting stuff wrong’

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IMAGES: PRIVATE EYE

Features

/ 31

23/03/2012 14:24:46

THE

STORY
BEHIND THE
SCOOP

When Alex Crawford
rode into Tripoli with
the rebels in August
2011, millions tuned in,
including Cameron and
Obama. But how did Sky
get the exclusive? Poppy
McPherson and Richard
Martin talk to the team
who broke the news

IMAGE: SKY

Alex Crawford Presenter

I WAS on the phone to the ofﬁces at
Sky and the presenter just kept on
asking: “Are you sure?” When we
ﬁnally put down the phone I said to
Andy [Marsh, producer]: “We’ve got
to get these pictures because they
don’t believe it.” I thought we’d have
to stop and set up on the side of the
road. But then we’d leave our lift
and we weren’t yet at Green Square
[in Tripoli]. So Andy said: “Why
don’t we try doing it on the back of
the truck?”
It was so simple but it takes
that completely outside-the-box
feeling. If anyone had voiced any
doubt or been scared then we would
have pulled it. We were thinking,
breathing, operating simultaneously
as one. We didn’t have to talk much.
Much of the time we were focusing
on the practicalities – getting it up
and running, getting a signal. For
me, that was continuing to talk to
the camera, managing to balance on
the back of a pick-up truck.
All these people started coming
out of their houses, hugging us,
slapping the soldiers on the back
and throwing gifts into the truck.
When we were going into Green
Square, Garwen got off to take
some pictures on the ground. Then
something happened at the head
of the convoy. People were running
and being knocked over by other
runners and knocked over by
cars. Everyone started reversing.
We pulled Garwen on at the last
minute, and the truck absolutely
legged it out of there. We were
hanging onto the back of the truck –
it was careering at a rate of knots.
We didn’t know then but we
know now that there was a rump of
Gaddaﬁ forces, including Gaddaﬁ
himself, in a compound a mile or so
away probably watching all this on
their satellite television.

pp32-33.indd 2

Andy Marsh Producer

YOU make your own luck. We went
back on the road that evening to
see what was going on and found
ourselves in a position to capitalise.
We came across dozens of vehicles
all parked up, lights on, engines
running. It was obvious that they
were getting ready to try and drive
into Tripoli. I found a pick-up truck
with four guys in the back with
AK-47s. One of them had gone to
Bournemouth University so he spoke
very good English and we jumped in.
Eventually this convoy started
moving. There was lots of gunﬁre
from the people we were with.
I decided to try and ﬁnd a satellite
signal on my laptop and managed to
get one. Nobody’s ever used a BGAN
[satellite dish] on the move before.
I had to keep moving the dish as we

were going along. It’s pretty tiring
work, especially when you’re kneeling
in the back of a truck and holding
onto everything so it doesn’t fall
off. There were wires going into the
truck – it was plugged into the 12-bolt
cigarette charger to keep it powered.
It was an extraordinary situation.
The guys on the truck turned around
and said: “We don’t know what’s
ahead, this is going to be quite hairy –
do you want to continue or get out?”
But by this point we were so far in.
We didn’t really have anything
with us. I was the only one with a
toothbrush in my bag. No food, no
water, nothing, but we just kept
going. There was no extraction plan,
no back-up. It was the right people
in the right place and, fortunately, at
the right time.

23/03/2012 14:26:06

Garwen McLuckie Cameraman

I DIDN’T think we would pull it off.
We were using an Apple MacBook
Pro and a mobile satellite device
which normally only enables you to
move slowly, but we were moving
really quickly.
Andy managed to get a bearing of
where the satellite was and where
the signal strength was best. As we
were moving, he slowly tracked the
satellite on the roof of the jeep while
we were going live. There isn’t any
technology that allows you to do that,
but he managed it. It was miraculous
– keeping those signals locked onto
the satellite and transmitting live was
unheard of.
It gave us the edge on the story.
I later gave him a huge kiss on the
cheek to congratulate him.
I used a mini Panasonic P2 Camera,

pp32-33.indd 3

which was lightweight. It was small
enough to hold while dodging sniper
ﬁre and running between houses.
When we arrived in Green Square
in Tripoli all the rebels came and
congregated in the middle of the
square, ﬁring anti-aircraft guns and
AK-47s into the air.
I’ll never forget the noise – I could
feel it in my teeth.
We thought it was job done,
but then we were in the hospital
witnessing the most horriﬁc things
I’ve ever seen.
There were people with missing
body parts, people with bullets in their
heads, people screaming and crying.
Sometimes it’s easy to hide behind
the viewﬁnder and disassociate
yourself, but this was just
overwhelming.

How it worked
THE PRODUCER tracked the
satellite signal with a laptop-shaped
satellite dish.
To keep the signal he had to
angle the dish to follow the satellite
in the sky.
The team plugged a hand-held
camera into their MacBook Pro,
which used in-built software to
convert the images into a form that
could be broadcast.
It was only because the road to
Tripoli was straight that the team
were able to keep broadcasting. ●
XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

/ 33

23/03/2012 14:26:13

Features

THIS
CHARMING
MAG
Independent magazines have
become a popular alternative
to big publications. Nadia
Khomami and David Woode
inspect four perfect bound
beauties

P

undits agree that the magazine
industry is moving into an age
of digital publishing. The rise
of tablets, smartphones and
social media has provided easy-access
information that has undercut traditional
revenue streams. Big consumer titles are
shedding readers by the bucket load, and
the industry’s unofﬁcial motto appears to
be “print is dead”.
There is, however, a silver lining to this
cloud – the rise of new, niche independent
magazines. These print products are not
just about information. They are ﬁlled with
beautiful designs, and approach features
and fashion in a unique and refreshing
way.
Whether they are printed on recycled
stock, use natural inks or employ beautiful
effects such as foil blocking, they are
something readers want to keep. They
become collectible, desirable objects, living

34 / XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

pp34,35,36,37.indd 2

26/03/2012 18:30:28

Features

Cover and spread from Huck

off a community of loyal readers.
“If you’re going to start a magazine,
you’re going to spend an awful amount
of time, energy, and money,” says
Steve Watson, founder of independent
magazine subscription service Stack.
“Really, your only reward is the
pleasure of seeing this creative vision
that starts in your mind, and the
minds of your friends, becoming a
reality.
“You’ve got to be passionate,
motivated and make something people
want to read.”
It is this purity of motivation that
underpins independent publications
and produces magazines of such chic
beauty and quirky originality, that
keeps them propped up on shelves in
bedrooms and living rooms long after
other mainstream titles have been
consigned to the bin.

IN a society where the sheer mass
of minute-by-minute news media
can become overwhelming, there is
a growing interest in retrospective
journalism.
Launched in January 2011 by
Marcus Webb and Rob Orchard,
Delayed Gratification is a quarterly
current affairs publication from
The Slow Journalism Company
that “measures news in months, not
minutes”. Each issue provides new
angles on the past three months’
political, cultural, scientific and
sporting stories, using a combination
of essays, reportage and infographics.
“Returning to stories after the dust
has settled is an interesting service,”
says editor Orchard. “In a world of
increasingly fast media, it’s really
valuable to have a magazine that
draws a line in the sand... The people
we’re talking to give their considered
opinion rather than their first
immediate reaction.”
In one recent issue, a writer
revisited the Norwegian Island
Utøya after Anders Behring Breivik’s
massacre, talking to the devout
liberals who there. It combined
beautiful photography of the area
with original, insightful interviews
and narrative. Elsewhere in the issue
there were features on rock and roll,
the English summer
riots, and whether
2014’s FIFA World
Cup could save Haiti.
The magazine
prides itself on
presenting long
form journalism
in an attractive,
palatable style. “It
is very difficult to
have a mass market
publication that is all
about slow, considered
journalism,” admits
Orchard. “Graphics
are a good way of
taking a huge amount
of data and drawing
a story out of it.”

cir

pr

£12

at
cu l i o

5k

n

Delayed Gratification

ice

Infographics feature heavily in the
magazine, with each issue’s contents
page turned into a map of events that
occurred in the past quarter, rated by
both seriousness and length.
Delayed Gratification isn’t too
concerned with digital expansion.
Orchard believes people have very
different relationships with free
digital media and print media. “In
the same way some people who
have iPods also like to have a record
player, you have people who are
heavily into digital media but like
having the balance,” he says. “We
want people to enjoy the printed
product. We want them to have
something in their home that looks
good, feels good, and smells good.”
Although Orchard is confident that
there will always be a readership
willing to pay for high-quality
print, he says titles such as Delayed
Gratification are driven by love, not
money. “They could never be set
up by people who are motivated by
the commercial side. None of us are
employees - we’re all owners as well
as producers.” NK ►

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23/03/2012 14:27:26

Features

75k

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Port

ice

ACCORDING to Dan Crowe, the
editor of Port, his magazine is the
link between mainstream monthlies
and niche fashion titles, which Crowe
likens to “business” magazines.
“Look at any of the big consumer
titles and they make you feel as if
you’re not tall enough, or not skinny
enough. They sell you a lifestyle
that in the real world doesn’t exist,”
says Crowe. “They’re like business
magazines, they’re not bought outside
the industry. But at Port, we’re trying
to be as normal as possible.”
Port makes room for all ages,
sizes and looks, and its second issue
featured a photo shoot with a 73-yearold architect. “We dressed him up in
Prada and the response we got was
amazing. People were like, “Wow,
why doesn’t this happen more?” says
Crowe. “You wouldn’t see this type
of thing in other magazines because
everyone’s obsessed with age and
being the right weight. We just don’t
care about that at all.”
It is this appreciation of normality
that has attracted a large following
among men who crave more than just
layers of celebrity, style and sex in a
magazine. When Port was launched
as a quarterly title in March 2011,
36 /

pp34,35,36,37.indd 4

it set out to recapture the attitude of
magazines during the 1960s and align
it with engaging essays, long-form
features, clean aesthetics, striking
photography and strong typography.
“Mass media magazines started to
collapse in terms of copy sales and
quality about 15
years ago but there’s
always been an
interest in longer,
quality content,”
says Crowe. “The US
edition of Esquire in the 1960s would
shock you every time – the covers, the
content, it would blow you away. This
doesn’t happen in a lot of magazines
any more.”
The magazine, which is sold
internationally, has just celebrated
its first birthday and issue five is
currently on sale. Crowe believes
the growing success of independent
magazines like Port is underpinned
by people’s love for magazines and
their need for “things”.
“People love having a magazine
they can pick up and ﬂick through,”
he says. “We still like things. We
stare at screens all day, so having a
beautiful object is still valued as it
was 50 years ago.” DWO

15k

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Oh Comely

ice

YOU’LL find it on newsstands
nestled between iconic titles such
as Vogue and Elle, but inside, you
won’t find collages of the “worst
bums and tums” or “who wore it
best” articles.
Instead, the pages of women’s
lifestyle magazine Oh Comely
are filled with interesting
interpretations of mainstream ideas
– ones that are consciously different
to the consumerist culture of the
big glossies.
Oh Comely was born after editorin-chief and co-founder Liz Bennett
noticed that none
of the mainstream
women’s
magazines
created a sense
of community
among their readers.
“Magazines, at their best, feel like
a home. They fit into your life, they
give you a sense of community and
there’s something very comfortable
about the way you engage with
them,” she says. “At that time,
there were no women’s magazines
that I felt that way about.”
Oh Comely launched in the
summer of 2010. It is published
six times a year, and sold across
the UK and internationally. The
magazine encourages its readers
to “keep your curiosity sacred”,
and through its articles about
quirky experiences and creative
indulgences, Oh Comely is intimate,
yet inviting.

‘Magazines, at
their best, feel
like a home’

XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

23/03/2012 14:27:28

Features

The magazine’s design is
characterised by the use of clean
lines, creative white space, and
imaginative illustrations. Its
fashion stories with ethereal models
create nostalgic, dream-like images
reminiscent of vintage photography.
While some independent
publishers say it is difficult
to secure distribution for new
magazines, Oh Comely went
directly to a major stockist.
“Independent magazines tend to
be stocked in a few niche magazine
shops,” Bennett says. “There’s
this distribution wilderness in the
middle, which is hard if you want
to sell more than a couple thousand
copies... We were lucky because
we talked to WH Smith before the
launch, who agreed to take the title
on straight away.”
Bennett believes the magazine’s
success is down to its community
and their need for information.
“People are always complaining
that the internet is killing print,
but it’s actually enabling much
smaller titles to get a name and get
a following,” she says.
“There’s a major move to
democratise magazines from the
hands of the big publishers. These
days you can launch a magazine off
the back of a popular blog and have
an instant readership. ” DWO

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Huck

ice

REPORTING on social issues through
the lens of boardsports isn’t the most
obvious idea for a new magazine,
but Huck has done just that, with
astounding success.
The bi-monthly lifestyle magazine,
which launched in 2006, combines
pages of quality journalism
with breathtaking documentary
photography to capture youth culture
around the world.
Published by London-based creative
agency The Church of London, the
magazine has gained a strong cult
following, and is now published in
both English and French. And like
the growing number of independent
magazines, it now exists on the same
shelves as titles that come from
bigger publishing houses.
“We give extra thought to every
issue, and make sure there’s a reason
and a meaning for every single story
that goes into the magazine,” editor
Andrea Kurland says. “Every cover
is based around a topic that seeps
through the rest of the stories. We
want to create a little exhibition of
ideas, so you feel like there’s a reason
why you want to buy each issue.”
The cover story of one recent issue
is an interview with one of the world’s
best-known street artists, Shepard
Fairey, whose work helped the world
see Obama as an icon and force for
change. The artist discusses why he
has become disillusioned with the
American president.

Elsewhere there are pieces on how
foundation skate sports are breathing
life into America’s decaying urban
communities, how female rappers are
pulling Detroit out of recession blues,
and how the Dale Farm evictions pose
crucial questions about the ownership
of public land. All the features are
photo-led, framed with effectively used
white space.
It is no surprise, then, that Huck
won best cover in the Sports and Men’s
category of the Magazine Cover Awards
in 2009, and was also nominated in the
category of Best Designed Magazine
at the Magazine Design & Journalism
Awards 2008.
“Because we’re an independent
title, we have more freedom to create
something that follows a certain vision,”
says Kurland. “It means we can look
at each issue as a blank canvas, and
it really does raise the game for our
bigger competitors. All our images are
freshly commissioned. We have a very
set aesthetic and very curative list of
people we work with. They have the
same vision.”
The readers certainly seem to have
taken a shine to Huck – readership is
increasing with every issue. “You might
hear a lot of doom and gloom in the
mainstream media about print being
dead,” Andrea says, “but we never hear
it among the people we work with. And
the people we work with are the people
making these magazines.” NK ●
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23/03/2012 14:27:30

IMAGE: STUDIO CANAL

Features
Ewan McGregor plays the title
character in Roman Polanski’s
film The Ghost

t the launch of a celebrity
autobiography, the A-lister
drones on about how difficult
it was to write her book, how
many evenings she spent slumped over
her laptop, and how traumatic it was
to re-live her troubled past. She is met
with enthusiastic applause from the
press and fellow celebrities. But she
didn’t write the book. The journalist
who did is standing at the back of the
room watching the “author” take all
the credit.
The ghostwriter is the unsung hero
of many a blockbuster. Publishers
know that celebrity sells, but for
every Stephen Fry there are a dozen
Katie Prices and David Beckhams. So
what are the pros and cons of being
a ghostwriter and why are so many
journalists willing to park their egos for
some extra cash?
Autobiographies are a lucrative
business for publishers. The industry
in the UK is worth over £40m. Stars

38 /

pp38-39.indd 2

scheduled to turn over books this
year include X Factor judge Tulisa
Contostavlos, singer Billy Ray Cyrus
and Sam Faiers of The Only Way Is
Essex fame.
The tell-tale signs of a ghosted book
are the journalist’s credit. Some are
credited as “written with” on page
three, others get their name in tiny
letters on the front. The unlucky ones
get an acknowledgement just before
the prologue, in a “with thanks to”
reference to the journo who did all the
hard graft.

‘I wrote 400 pages
and had my name
buried deep inside’
One journalist who wrote a racy novel
for a celebrity and entrepreneur recalls:
“I must have spoken to her for about
two hours in total. I wrote more than
400 pages, got paid £8,000 and had my

name buried deep inside – it wasn’t
even the first ‘with thanks’ byline.”
Not getting public credit clearly hurts
for some ghosts. “I can imagine it’d be
really difficult not having your work
acknowledged – you’re more of an editor
than a writer” says Julie Wheelwright,
head of the creative writing non-fiction
MA at City University London.
“Ghostwriting is very difficult. You
need to be a very skilled writer. I can
imagine the worst thing for a journalist
would be working against your instincts
when you’re meant to be thriving
off controversy.”
More than the frustration of not
having your name prominently
displayed, ghostwriters sometimes
have to hold their tongues and sit on
exclusive material. Matt Dickinson,
chief sports correspondent at
The Times, who has ghostwritten
autobiographies by star footballers,
recalls his frustration when Gary
Neville cut passages from his book.

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26/03/2012 18:31:36

Features
writer who has ghostwritten bestselling
books with detective Harry Keeble. His
research involves getting to know social
workers, victims of crime, police and
solicitors who help him write a story
that he says comes closer to the truth
than a news report. “With a book you
can really take your time to get to the
heart of the matter and find out the
truth,” he says. “You’ve got to find out
everything about someone’s life; it’s
very much like a therapy session.”

E

mpathy, inquisitiveness
and interviewing skills are
paramount to both
ghost-writing
and reporting, so it’s
little wonder publishers
prefer to hire hacks. Nonfiction publisher Andrew
Lownie says that he likes
approaching journalists
to be part of his “stable”
of ghostwriters. “All my
ghosts are professional
writers. Journalists
are used to writing
to deadlines, writing vividly and
accurately, and can deal with lots of
different people.”
Socialising can also be crucial
to finding a contract. “My projects
come about through word of mouth
generally,” Paramor says. “For me
it’s all about networking – you meet
people at parties then they get in
touch afterwards.” Matt Dickinson had
IMAGE: BANTAM PRESS

“There were a few things Gary took
out which as a journalist I would have
liked to stay in, but from his point
of view I can see why he cut them.
As a journalist you want as many
juicy stories as possible so there was
journalistic frustration. I’ve got some
information in my head that may never
see the light of day, which is quite
tormenting. You have to remember it’s
their book, not yours.”
Not everyone agrees. Jordan Paramor
has been a showbiz journalist for 18
years and ghostwritten 11 books on
behalf of bands like Steps and Blue.
She rejects the suggestion that ghosting
is little more than glorified PR. “I’m
not a news reporter so I don’t slag off
the celebrities I’m ghosting for. I never
wait for them to spill out of nightclubs
or report on their private lives to get an
exclusive. I feel privileged about being
able to write their book.”
Paramor spent three months on the
road with Steps, often spending up to
ten hours a day with the band to get to
know them. She knew Claire Richards
before the band became famous, so
she found this “less of a chore, more
like hanging out with a lot of friends.”
Emma Donnan (see below), spent
weeks attending personal appearances
in nightclubs with her subjects from
The Only Way Is Essex.
Quality time with a subject helps the
journalist find their voice. But not all
writers are swept up in red carpet glitz.
Kris Hollington is a freelance crime

known Gary Neville’s family for many
years and was approached personally
by Neville when it came to writing the
book. Hollington says he can tell within
five minutes of meeting somebody
whether he can ghostwrite their book –
chemistry is key.
But, as chummy as celebrity and
ghost might be during the writing
process, they ever fall out over
payment? Hollington says that although
he is happy with his deal, a half-andhalf split with the publisher, others
are not so lucky. “There’s a general
perception that ghostwriters just get a
ﬂat fee and no future royalties,
but payment depends on the
deal you thrash out,” he says.
“Generally the more famous
the person, the worse the deal
is for the ghostwriter.”
Dickinson was given a
ﬂat fee for Gary Neville’s
book but has heard of sums
ranging from peanuts to six
figures. “The money’s not
so good that I would do one
unless I really felt it would
be hugely rewarding and fulfilling
professionally – or if it was someone I
thought was so fascinating that I’d be
an idiot to turn it down,” he adds.
Despite the potential drawbacks, the
draw of a uniquely compelling story
or a pay cheque to top up their day job
persuades journalist ghostwriters to
surrender the byline and stand at the
back of the crowd. ●

Emma Donnan, assistant editor at Star magazine, has just finished two autobiographies by The Only Way Is Essex
stars: Sam Faiers’s autobiography Living Life the Essex Way: TOWIE, and Nanny Pat’s East End memoirs
I spent a lot of time with Sam, mainly going
I’ve got to know Sam well as she does
in the car with her to personal appearances.
a column for the magazine. This made it
My friends and family said I even started
easier for me to ﬁnd her voice when I was
speaking a bit like her! Nanny Pat’s been
ghosting her book. The book came about
really interesting – she’s been
when we were having a
very open, taking me around
drink to discuss her future
where she used to live.
plans and I came up with the
The relationship with the
idea. Her publisher loved it
subject can also help my job
and we took it from there.
as a journalist. When Sam was
Nanny Pat’s book came
attacked last year Star got
about because the publisher
the exclusive chat with her
and PRs were interested
afterwards because of the
in her as a subject. Having
good relationship I had with
a good relationship is
paramount to ghostwriting. Donnan (right) with Faiers her, through the column and

the book.You have to be quite structured
with your routine to write alongside your
journalism day job. I gave myself around
10,000 words to write a week, then worked
out how to ﬁt it around my lifestyle.
You accept that you need to sacriﬁce
your social life for a bit. My friends don’t
mind that much – they actually get excited.
I’d deﬁnitely consider ghosting more books.
I’d even do a novel on behalf of a celebrity
if I thought it would be interesting. I don’t
have a big ego about it – you know what
you’re signing up for. Sam’s credited me
throughout the book and has been open
about the fact it’s ghostwritten. NW
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/

39

26/03/2012 18:31:36

A DAY WITH

EVAN DAVIS

Millions wake up to his voice, but the man behind the Today microphone
remains an enigma. He tells Ben Riley-Smith why Leveson is right,
Thought for the Day is outdated and his sexuality is irrelevant
40 /

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23/03/2012 14:30:00

I

t’s 5am at BBC Television Centre.
In the corner of an otherwise
deserted first-floor newsroom,
Evan Davis is writing his Today
programme cues. “What do you call
Roman Abramovich?” he asks the
handful of producers and researchers
that make up the show’s night team.
“The chairman of Chelsea?”, he
suggests. Someone responds “owner”.
Davis nods and edits his lines on
Chelsea’s sacked manager, muttering
the new script under his breath. To his
right, John Humphrys picks at a bowl
of cornflakes and scrutinises an article
on Putin’s election victory.
The sun may still be an hour
away from rising, but the scene’s
quiet intensity is hardly surprising.
Professionalism is the hallmark of
Today­­­, Radio 4’s flagship current
affairs programme. Reaching a
weekly audience of more than seven
million people, the three-hour show
is deemed essential listening by the
political establishment. It is British
broadcasting royalty.
The same can increasingly be said
of Davis. Since his arrival at the BBC
as an economics correspondent in
1993, the Oxford graduate has risen so
quickly that he is now teetering on the
edge of national treasure status. His
time is divided between Today slots
and presenter duties for The Bottom
Line, leading round-table discussions
with business leaders, and the ever
popular Dragons’ Den. Plus, as with all
BBC grandees, there are the obligatory
documentaries on big UK cultural
issues; his latest offering, Made in
Britain, deconstructed the myth of
British industrial decline.
Yet for a man with such a towering
media profile, Davis remains
something of an enigma. His cheery,
measured delivery lacks Jeremy
Paxman’s accusatory snarl, or Robert
Peston’s evident ego. Davis’s approach
to broadcasting suggests a shyness and
privacy that is all too rare in front of
the camera. He is more likely to laugh
than shout when an interview gets
heated – a lighter approach which,
he admits later, sometimes gives
interviewees an easy ride.
In person, the 49-year-old is all

Features
smiles as the minutes tick down
towards Today’s 6am start. Dressed
in black boots, a denim shirt and
dark jeans with a silver chain that
runs from back pocket to side, Davis
rehearses his lines. His hair – what
little of it remains – is tufted into a
neat quiff. There’s not much to suggest
he’s been up since 3.15am.
“The truth is, I turned down the job
when they offered it to me,” Davis says
when asked about the early starts.
“I didn’t think I would cope with the
unsociable hours. But now it’s amazing
to me that I could have ever thought
that moving from BBC economics
editor to Today would somehow be

Is Davis too soft
an interviewer
at times? ‘That’s
undoubtedly true.
That’s the risk I run’
more unsociable.” Gone are the lastminute call-ups to the 10 o’clock news,
replaced with fixed shifts that take
up no more than 20 hours a week.
Providing you adjust to the sleeping
arrangements – Davis goes to bed at
8.30pm, using hypnosis tapes to nod off
– it’s a great gig, he says: “Don’t ever
feel sorry for Today presenters.”
At 5.57am, Davis sweeps up his
notes along with the day’s nationals
and heads for the recording studio.
Three minutes later, the pips start to
sound. “It’s six o’clock on Monday 5th
March. Good morning. This is Today
with Evan Davis and John Humphrys.
The headlines...”
Sitting in the production studio,
which is separated from the recording
room by a glass screen, it’s clear the
show resembles that old swan analogy:
as the presenters glide seamlessly
from paper roundup to interview to
recorded package, backstage legs are
furiously kicking. The unseen team –
made up of an editor, producer, sound
man and two general dogsbodies – are
constantly chasing calls, reshuffling
the running order and barking
directions at the front men in an effort
to keep to timings.

It is Davis’s failure to do just this
that leads to his first reprimand of
the day. Asked to close a discussion
on the government’s legal aid bill, he
poses a question which results in a 30second response. “That was just a shit
question to ask,” barks the producer
down the intercom. “I told you to wrap
up!” They are now running late.
Other problems constantly crop up.
Just 20 seconds before their reporter
in Moscow goes live on air the line is
snatched by a rival broadcast on BBC
World News, prompting momentary
panic before a recorded item plugs the
gap. Later, at the 8.10am interview,
an advisor to Putin turns out to have
an indecipherable Russian accent. “I
don’t understand a word,” the producer
says in exasperation. “He could be a
meerkat.” An email is sent to Davis
carrying a similar message – he almost
bursts into laughter mid-broadcast.
The final half hour proves even more
manic, a mad juggling act of time
remaining and content ready to run.
Yet, as ever, the nine o’clock pips are
hit perfectly. “Ah, we end on a high,”
the producer sighs. A quick debrief of
the show with the full team follows.
All agree the Trident debate was a
success, Ken Clarke was as sprightly
as ever (“one of the half dozen best
communicators in the Commons”,
according to Davis) and Cardinal Keith
O’Brien’s comparison of gay marriage
to slavery was ludicrously illogical. The
Cardinal’s comments go on to make
headlines that day.
With Today duties over by 9.30am,
we head to the BBC cafeteria. Over a
cappuccino and dodgy-looking panini,
Davis recalls how he adjusted to his
presenting role after joining the show
in April 2008. “The biggest difficulty in
the job is in trying to inject something
that is funny or unscripted,” he says.
“It’s very easy to be gauche, stupid and
facile, and it’s very easy to be boring.
“Thinking back to the very early
days there were lots of crass links to
the weather man and crass links to
the sports man. I got a message from
the controller of Radio 4 saying: ‘You
can just throw to the sport guy without
some kind of gag. You can just say
“here’s the sport.”’ It was totally ►
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23/03/2012 14:30:01

Features

42 /

moral perspective on an event of the
day. I don’t think Thought for the Day
necessarily has to only be people of
the cloth.” Clearly, decades of BBC
bureaucracy haven’t stunted Davis’s
capacity for controversy.
Flicking through past interview
cuttings before our meeting, it is clear

‘It is a matter of
regret that being
gay is the most
interesting thing
about me’
that Davis’s homosexuality – he is one
of the few prominent gay journalists –
often makes the headlines. How does
he deal with the exposure? “How long
have we got?” he sighs. “You accept
that you have to give a bit of your
personality. I don’t keep it secret that
I live with my partner Gio. I’m very
proud of my gayness. But there is lots
I wouldn’t want the press to write
about me. I have generally tried not to
promote a lot of personality cult stuff
off air. I say no to interview bids that
ask ‘tell us about your garden’ or ‘tell
us about your cooking’.”
That hasn’t stopped the press,
however. Many profiles of Davis are
packed with column inches discussing

which tattoos and piercings he may or
may not have (particularly whether it’s
true that he has a stud in a place that
would make most men wince). Have
journalists overstepped the mark?
“It is a matter of regret that being
gay is the most interesting thing
about me,” he says. “Maybe that’s my
fault. Maybe fundamentally I’m not
interesting enough and so speculating
about whatever body piercings I might
have makes for better copy.
“I have thought very badly of some
of the journalists who’ve written about
me,” he continues. “I did an interview
for the Evening Standard with a very
bright guy, Richard Godwin, who
asked perfectly sensible questions
and a few bits of gay stuff at the end.
Then they printed a huge headline
about something to do with gay stuff
[it read: “I believe people have a right
to be bigoted about gays”]. They ran a
picture taken two or three years ago of
me and my boyfriend and Gok Wan.
“And I just thought ‘God, I’m trying
to promote a book here. They obviously
can’t think of anything interesting to
say about the book, either positive or
negative, and have consequently felt
obliged to dredge up this photo, even
though I spent half an hour with their
photographer. And they’ve come back
to this camp photo, camp headline’.
I just find that slightly regrettable.”
IMAGE: BBC

the right thing to do, to rein it back.”
Today, Davis is approaching his fouryear anniversary on the programme.
And yet, with the bedding-in period
long passed, there remains criticism
from some quarters about his lighter
interviewing style. In 2009, Labour’s
culture secretary Ben Bradshaw
branded the show “wholly feeble and
biased” after a Davis interview with
George Osborne. The point may have
been party political, but the allegation
that Davis is a weak interrogator
spreads wider than Whitehall.
So does he let interviewees off the
hook more often than other presenters?
“I think that’s undoubtedly true,” he
says, with surprising candour. “On
occasion, I’m sure that’s true. That’s
the risk I run. But while there is the
error of failing to convict people who
are guilty, there’s the other error of
convicting people who are innocent...
Very few people think that is a problem
that journalists make, but I do.”
“The interview above all has to
be interesting and engaging,” Davis
continues. “You’ve got a number of
different ways of making it so. You’ve
got the Jeremy Paxman style, which is
funny, in a certain way. You’ve got a
forensic Humphrys style... It’s not just
about getting the information out – it’s
got to be a good, conversational listen.
So I just try and make mine engaging
in a different way.”
By now the panini is long gone,
and Davis clings to his coffee cup. He
answers questions with a boyish grin,
but his responses always contain a
tight, sharp logic, honed by decades of
unpicking arguments.
This is clear from his answer on
whether, as an atheist, he thinks
prominent religious speakers should be
given a daily slot on a current affairs
programme. “Well,” he says, carefully
considering Today’s Thought for the
Day. “I think there’s a very serious
debate about whether the spot – which
I would keep – might give space to
what one might call ‘serious and
spiritually-minded secularists’.” Like
Richard Dawkins? “Richard Dawkins
could be one. There are lots of people
who could describe themselves as
atheists who might have an interesting

Davis in the original Dragons’ Den

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23/03/2012 14:30:01

Features

10 quick fire questions
Downton Abbey or The Only Way
is Essex? The Only Way is Essex,
because it’s funny. The true answer
is neither, of course, but if I had to
choose I’d probably enjoy watching
TOWIE more.
Sushi or Big Mac? I would once
have said Big Mac, but I think now on
health grounds, sushi.
Lady Gaga or Engelbert
Humperdinck? Well that’s not a
very meaningful dichotomy is it!
Lady Gaga. But I like Engelbert
Humperdinck and it’s great that he’s
got this gig in the Eurovision.

Davis and Humphrys in the Today studio

Despite this press intrigue, Davis
rejects the idea that the UK media
is homophobic, a word he thinks is
“bandied around” too much. “We can
dwell too much on the negatives,” he
says. “If you’re black or gay or female

‘The BBC
actually had its
own Leveson...
it was called the
Hutton Inquiry’
and you’re attuned to looking for
the discrimination you face, here’s
my guess: you will too often ascribe
decisions that happen in the normal
run of life to your gayness, colour
of skin or gender.” In fact, Davis
believes: “Being gay has been mildly
advantageous in my career – it’s seen
as interesting, and being interesting is
good in media land.”
As we approach 11am, Davis says
he must leave soon to edit his Made in
Britain book. Before he goes, however,
we turn to the Leveson Inquiry, which
education secretary Michael Gove
recently said was creating a “chilling
atmosphere towards freedom of
expression”. Davis, while careful to
call his words “musings” rather than
considered thoughts, is pretty damning
of Gove’s suggestion.
“It’s unlikely to have a big effect on

press freedom,” he states. But won’t
the hands of journalists be more tied in
the future?
“Why?” he responds. “There’s a
public interest defence, and the public
interest has not been under attack...
One or two things have come up that
were clearly against the public interest.
The Times hacked the computer of the
NightJack blogger to out him. That
was a hacking case, but what was that
about? What possible public interest
was there in that? Their defence on
that was ludicrous.”
It is past experience that underpins
Davis’s assertions. “I’ll tell you why I’m
somewhat more sanguine about this
than other people,” he explains. “The
BBC actually had its own Leveson,
and it affected the Today programme
more than anyone else. It was called
the Hutton Inquiry. People have been
saying ‘you’ve been tamed, you’ve been
shut up’. I don’t get that impression
at all. I’ve never seen us not tackle an
issue we think is difficult.”
If such a rousing defence of Leveson
is out of character for a man who
watches his words carefully, Davis’s
support of Today is less surprising –
four years in, his enthusiasm for his
job hasn’t waned. “I’m there for the
long term,” he says with a smile. As
we leave Television Centre and go our
separate ways, there is little doubt
that Davis is a BBC man through
and through. How else could he face
another 3.15am start tomorrow? ●

Alcoholic drink of choice? Red wine.
Normally one that’s priced around £8
a bottle will do.
What book are you currently
reading? Next to my bed at the
moment is a book called Quiet:
The power of introverts. It’s about
introverted people and how we should
appreciate those who aren’t shouting
all the time. I think there’s something
in that.
Last record you bought? I’m afraid
to say I don’t buy records anymore
because I just have a top level
subscription to Spotify. But the last
thing I tagged on Shazam was Give
Me Everything by Pitbull, featuring
Ne-Yo.
Duncan Bannatyne or Peter Jones?
Deborah Meaden.
London Olympics or three weeks
abroad? London Olympics, definitely,
100%. I can’t think of anything I’d less
like to do than leave the capital for
that. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic.
It’s worth £10bn.
New Statesman or The Spectator?
That’s really asking whether I’m rightwing or left-wing, and I’m not going to
get into an answer on that. They both
have their merits.
Tell us a joke. A doctor says: “I’ve
got good news and bad news”.
The patient says: “What’s the good
news?” The doctor replies: “You’ve
got 24 hours to live”. “That’s the good
news?! What’s the bad news?” says
the patient. And the doctor says: “I’ve
been trying to get hold of you since
yesterday lunch time.” It’s a cracker.
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23/03/2012 14:30:02

Features

FOR THE
PEOPLE
BY THE
PEOPLE

Armed with smartphones and
digital cameras, amateur
photographers are beating
the professionals at their own
game. Monique Rivalland and
Zing Tsjeng report on the rise
of the citizen journalist

A

hated tyrant is dragged from a
drain and killed, bringing an
end to more than 30 years of
dictatorship. The next morning,
his dying face is splashed across the
covers of newspapers worldwide.
But the picture of Gaddafi’s bloodied
body wasn’t the work of a wire
photographer who raced to the scene.
Instead it was a photo captured on an
unknown bystander’s mobile phone.
This wasn’t the first time work by a
citizen photojournalist has ended up on
front pages throughout the world.
When US Airways Flight 1549 made
an emergency landing on the Hudson
River in New York in January 2009,
Janis Krums was on a nearby ferry.
He pulled out his mobile to snap the
passengers waiting on the plane’s wing
for rescue, and tweeted the picture.
Within 20 minutes, MSNBC were on
the phone.
“With the rise of smartphones there
will always be a citizen in the right
place at the right time,” Krums says.
“It creates authentic and up to the
minute coverage that in the past was
impossible.”
New organisations have sprung up to
cater for the staggering rise of citizen
journalism. Krums now works on
Rawporter, an app that helps amateur
photojournalists profit from their work.
44 /

pp44-45.indd 2

He’s not the only one trying to monetise
the phenomenon. Demotix, a citizen
journalism newswire, licenses content
produced by non-professionals and sells
them to mainstream media outlets.
Its founder and CEO, Turi Munthe,
says Demotix has “been able to cover
news none of the old agencies could
reach, and has scooped stories that
would never have seen the light of day.”
With Corbis Images, one of the
world’s leading photo agencies, signing
a distribution deal with Demotix
for an undisclosed amount, citizen
photojournalism is becoming a force to
be reckoned with. But what does that
mean for professional photojournalists?
Rob McGibbons, who is judging the
British Press Awards 2012, believes the
two practices remain separate. “Citizen
journalism is stuff that only happens by
luck most of the time,” he points out. “It
makes you a very observant passer-by,
but journalism is about a career.”
It may not be a profession, but citizen
journalism is undoubtedly challenging
the status quo of photojournalism.
Publications now have a huge and
growing body of amateur photographs
available at their fingertips.
The following selection of images all
made a splash in publications around
the world. They were also all taken by
citizen journalists. ●

Clockwise: schoolgirls guard a police van during
the London student protests; the Royal Wedding;
a close-up of Gaddafi’s corpse; a caravan catches
fire during the eviction of Dale Farm

FISHING FOR
ANECDOTES
Revealing personal
details
is all part of the job,
but how far will they go?
Helen Lawson talks to
three leading writers
about the dilemmas
and delights of life as a
columnist

48 /

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IMAGE: ANNA TRENCH

C

personal information a columnist
should reveal about themselves and
those around them, especially when
they’re always on the look out for a
good story to hook the next article
around. When your pay packet –
reputedly six figures for big names like
Richard Littlejohn and Caitlin Moran
– depends on delving into your private
life, or at least drawing on it, the
pressure builds to tell all.
As his children reach their teens,
Dowling says: “I have to be more
careful because they’re at school. They
have a private life that is not mine to
explore for material. I stick to the bits
where they interact with me.”
But he admits that it can sometimes
be hard to resist sharing funny family
stories, even if it means ending up out
of pocket. “My son got lost on his first
day of secondary school and got found
by the police. And he specifically said:
‘You can’t write about this,’ and I said:
‘I would never ever ever write about

it, what do you take me for?’ Two days
later I said: ‘How much?’” Dowling can
usually buy his kids’ silence in return
for a tenner – as long as they spot the
offending quotes themselves.
The pressure to come up with
original and entertaining columns
week after week inevitably means that
IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

olumnists are enjoying more
notoriety than ever before.
Editors know that personality
and controversy sell, so star
writers have their photos splashed
on the front of newspapers and
magazines. With the rise of Twitter
and online comments sections, readers
can respond instantly to what they say.
So what is it like to regularly have your
opinions laid bare to the nation?
“The paywall seems to act like a
filter for a lot of idiots,” says The
Times’s Saturday columnist Janice
Turner (newspaper, 1987). “I feel
for my comrades on The Guardian,
for example. It’s quite famous that
commentators at the end of people’s
columns are really cruel and horrible
and very personal. It must hurt a lot.”
Columnists have to develop a thick
skin or another coping strategy. The
Guardian’s Tim Dowling says he is
laid- back about the reaction to his
weekly column on his family life, and
only wants to make his wife laugh.
“Some say I love your columns, some
say I hate your columns, some say ‘I
can’t believe you get paid to write this.’
I try to behave as if the whole thing is
out of my hands. If people don’t like it
there’s nothing I can do about that.”
One common dilemma is how much

Award-winning columnist Janice
Turner: “You see the material there”

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23/03/2012 14:35:46

Laura Topham met her best
friend thanks to her column
columnists are tempted to cross the
line and risk annoying or offending
friends and family.
Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones
alienated her new neighbours in
West Somerset to the extent that her
letterbox was shot at, while a Tanya
Gold column for The Guardian, on her
hatred of wedding lists, led to the bride
in question appearing in the comments
section to suggest that she might not
want Gold at her wedding after all.
Sharing stories that aren’t yours
to tell can have dire consequences.
Turner recalls a piece she wrote at
the beginning of her stint for The
Guardian where she didn’t conceal a
friend’s identity well enough, losing the
friend as a result.
“There is a temptation to sit in your
room and just type and think no one’s
ever going to read it, and it’s a bit of a
shock to when you realise there could
be implications,” she says.
“There’s this Graham Greene quote
about every writer having a shard
of ice in their heart, and I think
that’s true of columnists. You see the
material there.”
The most intimate relationships
often make perfect column fodder.
Laura Topham (magazine, 2005) spent
two years detailing her love life for the
Evening Standard. It was baring the
intricacies of a break-up that shocked
her readers the most.
“I was writing the nitty-gritty – what
he’d said, what I’d said,” she says. “In
hindsight it’s a weird thing to write in
a paper, but the more brutally honest
you are the better your column is.”
But with pressure to keep the
readers hooked, is there a temptation

to exaggerate or even fabricate
incidents and outrage?
“I’m not an actress – I couldn’t
fake it,” says Turner. “You can spot
the people who are professional troll
journalists. They just write to create
uproar and to manufacture traffic
on websites. Like James Delingpole,
for example, he’s a terrible troll. Rod
Liddle too – though I don’t know if he
believes it – and Toby Young, he’s the
most energetic of those people. They
want people to be outraged, they feed
off it. Maybe they believe it as well,
but they put it in the most offensive,
outrageous possible
way to get
things
going.”
Getting things
going certainly
pleases the hits
counter and
advertising revenue online. One
infamous Jones column, where she
admitted trying to impregnate herself
with the contents of a used condom,
garnered more than 1,200 reader
comments on MailOnline, and spawned
numerous blogs in response.
Turner says: “I don’t know how
Liz Jones copes with it, it’s insane.
Sometimes you wonder how close to
the edge they’re forcing her by making
her do things. You think God, they
should be careful – they’re feeding
her insecurity. Lots of people worry
about her.”
It can be tough setting yourself up
as a target for personal scrutiny, but
the rewards of column writing can be
great. At its peak it is one of the most
highly paid posts on any publication.
On a smaller scale, writing about living
out of a suitcase led to Topham being
offered a spare room by her now-best
friend. Talking about wanting to
adopt a granny turned into tea at The
Wolseley with a reader who is now her
surrogate grandmother.
Force of personality and skilful
writing, backed up by thousands of
Twitter followers, can also translate
into lucrative book deals and television
appearances. Moran’s How to Be
a Woman was launched last June
in a blaze of publicity, including
serialisations in The Times and Grazia,

and had racked up more than 140,000
sales by the end of 2011. And it’s not
just memoirs where columnists can
cash in. The Sunday Times’s India
Knight has three bestselling novels
to her name while Allison Pearson’s I
Don’t Know How She Does It, born out
of her Daily Telegraph column, sold
four million copies worldwide and was
turned into a comedy film starring
Sarah Jessica Parker.
While producing a successful column
is tough, writers such as Dowling
acknowledge it is also a privilege.
“I won’t pretend that it’s not the
laziest way
round, to write
about your own
life,” he says.
“In anything
else I write –
travel, meeting
people, listening, paying attention –
you suddenly realise how much more
work there is in being
a reporter.”
Turner feels the same. “I’m not
digging a road – I’m writing 1,000
words on an issue of the day. It’s like
doing a small exam every week. It does
make your brain writhe unlike writing
anything else.
“I trained with lots of people – the
sort who file court reports while the
case is going on, and write 1,100 words
on parliamentary debate in half an
hour. That, to me, is really hard. I
think column writing is a privileged
thing and when it’s done well
it’s great.” ●

‘The more brutally
honest you are
the better your
column is’

IMAGE: DAVID LEVENE

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

Features

Tim Dowling relaxes while thinking up
new ways to bribe his son for stories
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23/03/2012 14:35:47

IMAGE: REUTERS / PAUL CONROY

Features

A new crop of
inexperienced
journalists is
heading to conflict
zones to break
into the big time.
Poppy McPherson
reports

J

FREELANCING ON THE F

ames Longman had never
written a news story before he
was smuggled into Syria aged
24 last autumn. It was a chaotic
journey. “Massively scary,” he recalls,
“a lot of car swapping and check-points.
The chief concern was that the people
you’re with would be taken away and
shot behind a tree.”
Longman spent two weeks in hiding
with the Syrian opposition. Though he
had a good knowledge of the country
and fluent Arabic, he went without
hostile environment training or a flak
jacket. When the opposition safe house
where he was staying in Rastan, a
major city in the centre of the country,
came under heavy fire, he narrowly
escaped with his life. “The building was
suddenly hit by a couple of anti-aircraft
guns and we had to stay where we
were and then escape,” he says.
The fledgling foreign reporter is
part of the new generation of young
freelancers who have moved to the
Middle East since the start of the Arab
Spring last January. Foreign desks say
they have been inundated with emails
from inexperienced reporters eager
to prove their worth in Libya, Egypt,
Yemen and Syria. “In Libya last year
you had a lot of not terribly old, not
terribly experienced people ringing
up. A lot of people from City,” says
50 /

pp50-51.indd 2

Alistair Dawber, foreign editor at The
Independent. “With Syria and 23- to
24-year-olds trying to get into Homs,
it’s suicidal.”
The numbers prove as much. At least
46 journalists were killed last year – a
third of them freelancers, according to
the Committee to Protect Journalists.
That figure is more than double the
usual proportion, they say. Though no
one is safe in a war zone, freelancers
are particularly vulnerable as they
usually have no support team and may
be more willing to put themselves in
danger to secure a scoop. Training and
flak jackets are prohibitively expensive
and many go without.
Ruth Sherlock, 24, had neither when
she was given her first ever assignment
by The Daily Telegraph as a freelancer
in Egypt last year. She made her name
covering the fall of Mubarak then
followed the Arab Spring to Libya. Her
inexperience, she admits, led her to
make some dangerous mistakes.
During the peak of the violence in
Sirte, the last Gaddafi stronghold,
Sherlock followed a photographer to
the front line. “I was quite foolish.
It had suddenly become very, very
ugly because you had thousands of
rebels joined together all feeling very
victorious. They had a country full of
armaments at their disposal and no

idea how to use them. We went with
the very front of the advance and ended
up getting pinned against a wall with
people firing at us from all directions.
It was a lesson in how not to do it.”
Another front-line battle in Libya
claimed the life of London-based
freelance photographer Anton
Hammerl last April. He was shot
dead, while three freelance journalists
and another photographer were
captured and held by Gaddafi forces
for six weeks. “They had gone too far
forward,” says Sherlock.
Despite the risks, young journalists
are keen to make their name, and a big
war story can be a game-changer. It
certainly paid off for Longman, who is
now a BBC producer covering Syria. He
says that his comparative youth gave
him an advantage in the field. “For the
Arab Spring the big theme has been
youth. The closer in age you are, the
more rapport you can build with the
activists. I was in hiding with men my
age and younger. There have been a lot
of young people trying to do it, going
out and trying to prove their worth,
excited by the fact that they can go.”
The tradition of young journalists
dashing abroad to cover conflict is
hardly new. “Remember, there was
a young reporter who went over to
write about the South African wars as

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23/03/2012 14:36:09

E FRONT LINE
a freelancer – his name was Winston
Churchill,” says The Independent’s
veteran Middle East correspondent
Robert Fisk.
However, the number of firsttime war reporters has swelled as
shrinking budgets force media groups
to use cheaper freelancers. Fisk says
money for foreign correspondents
has dwindled over the course of his
career, especially since the growth
in free online content.
“They suddenly wanted
freelancers who weren’t
going to ask for lots of
money.”
So do media
organisations have a
moral obligation to foot the bill for
flak jackets and stump up money for
drivers, fixers, combat first aid and
satellite phones?
Iona Craig (international BA, 2009)
was one of five freelancers working in
Yemen amidst mortar fire, snipers,
and fighting between army and tribal
militia during last year’s unrest.
She says she was the only one to be
insured or have hostile environment
training paid for by a publication, The
Times – and only after six months of
covering violent clashes. Others had no
material support from publications and
broadcasters for whom they filed copy

or video up to three times a day.
Freelancers are forced to fall back
on charities such as The Rory Peck
Trust that offer bursaries to help cover
the cost of safety training, says Craig.
“They shouldn’t have to when they
have a regular employer who knows
full well they’re facing dangerous
situations on a regular basis on their
behalf. Last year all of us here learnt
as we went along. We didn’t have any

says the unnamed news outlet refuses
to pay for retainers or provide expenses
for fixers or flak jackets.
Some freelancers fear enforced
guidelines could stifle opportunity. “If
the industry suddenly says you cannot
take copy from a journalist unless you
provide them with a flak jacket, all
you’re going to do is kill the market
for freelancers,” says Jerome Starkey
(newspaper, 1994), who won the Kurt
Schork Award for his freelance
work in Afghanistan last year.
But now that anybody can
set foot in a war zone armed
only with a smartphone,
there is no going back to the
days when every journalist
was backed by a major organisation
– foreign desks are bound to get more
calls from freelancers.
In early February, one foreign editor
at a national newspaper got such a call.
A freelancer with no experience in war
zones was in Turkey and told the desk
he wanted to be smuggled over the
border into Homs, the city at the heart
of the Syrian chaos. He didn’t have a
flak jacket, helmet or conflict training.
“I asked him: what if you get shot?” the
editor recalls. He said: ‘Well, I don’t
intend to get shot.’ Nobody does.” ●
Additional reporting by Vesela
Gladicheva

‘We ended up pinned against
a wall with people firing at us
from all directions’
seasoned reporters to rely on for tips.”
The Rory Peck Trust has had a rise
in applications from people in their
twenties. A spokesperson said: “The
way that the industry is going, a lot
of organisations are using freelance
material. On the other hand, some are
very careful about who they use and
make sure they have training.”
But not all publications look after
part-time reporters. The treatment of
freelancers by one major publication
is “pretty scandalous” according to
Jonathan Boone (newspaper, 2004),
who left a staff job at the Financial
Times to freelance in Afghanistan. He

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LONDON 2012:
THE MEDIA BY
NUMBERS

52 /

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XCITY-MAGAZINE.COM

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RESEARCHED BY VESELA GLADICHEVA, DESIGNED BY ARTICLEWORKS

/ 53

23/03/2012 14:36:39

Features

FLEET STREET TO DOWNING S
For years, the allure of power has tempted journalists to Westminster.
Ben Riley-Smith hears from the hacks who’ve gone over to the dark side

D

avid Cameron can’t escape
journalists. But it’s not
just the attention of lobby
reporters, columnists and
sketch writers he has to put up with –
when the PM shuts the door to Number
10, he’s still surrounded by hacks.
His education secretary Michael
Gove spent almost a decade at The
Times. His party’s London mayor,
Boris Johnson, edited The Spectator
and continues to write a column for
The Daily Telegraph. Craig Oliver
and Julian Glover, Cameron’s
communications director and chief
speechwriter, joined the inner circle last
year from senior jobs at the BBC and
The Guardian respectively.
Cameron’s situation is by no means a
new one. For decades there has been a
steady flow of people from Fleet Street
to Westminster – sometimes known
as the “political gravy train”. On the
Labour benches, City graduate Meg
Hillier (newspaper, 1991) is MP for
Hackney South and Shoreditch, and
was a shadow minister until last year.
But what’s it actually like for those
journalists who cross the line? And once
crossed, is there any way back?
It’s not hard to spot similarities
between the worlds of politics and
journalism. Both claim to act in the

54 /

pp54-55.indd 2

public interest. Both are notorious for
their long hours and short tempers.
And both thrive on gossip.
Gabriel Milland, a former Daily
Express lobby journalist and City
student (newspaper, 1999) who
now works as the Department for
Education’s head of news, attributes
the tight link between journalism and
politics to the people both industries
attract. “Politics and the media have
been fishing in the same talent pool
in the last 20, 30 years,” he says. “A

‘Someone who I
thought was my
mate ran a piece
on Channel 4 News
that made me look
like a crook’
lot of people in politics know people
in journalism and vice versa. They
are similar characters with similar
backgrounds and interests.”
Martin Bright, the political editor of
The Jewish Chronicle, can understand
the appeal of Westminster life.
“Reporting is a young person’s game,”
he says. “You’re expected to work late
nights and do things at the drop of a

hat. People get tired and think: ‘I’ve
done my time and paid my dues, now I
want an easy life’.”
The political world offers a heady
mix of power, job security and financial
rewards that many jobbing journalists
can’t resist. “There’s no doubt it is an
easier life,” Bright adds. “There may be
other pressures, but it’s not the same as
being a front-line journalist.”
Nonetheless, Milland believes that
there are many similar skills needed
to do both jobs effectively – most
importantly, having a strong news
sense. “One of the big failures of a lot of
people in media relations is that they
don’t really understand journalists,” he
says. “If you’ve got news judgement and
know what a story is then you’ve got a
pretty good start. It enables you to spot
things that might play up and deal with
things that you don’t necessarily want
to play up.”
For journalists who enter politics as
elected officials, however, there is quite
a different challenge: role reversal.
After a career holding power to account,
hacks who switch sides suddenly find
themselves in the firing line. And that
can cause friction.
Adam Holloway MP was an
investigative journalist for ITN before
standing for election in Gravesham in

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26/03/2012 18:32:05

Features

G STREET
2005. After winning the parliamentary
seat, he got a call from Gary Gibbon,
a friend and political editor at
Channel 4 News, asking if he would be
interviewed for a piece about campaign
funding. Holloway said yes.
“In my 2005 campaign, most of the
money came from me,” he explains. “I
spent a year not working and going
round with a clipboard, spending my
savings. I also got £25,000 from Lord
Ashcroft that I used to print leaflets
and distribute stuff.
“The next thing I know, this person
who I thought was my mate ran the
piece on Channel 4 News with my
Labour opponent, who I’d defeated a
year earlier. It left you with the idea
that my election had been bought by
billionaire Lord Ashcroft, when in
reality it had been won by me working
very hard. I was being made to look
like a crook.”

S

uch experiences are less
common with journalists
who entered Westminster in
unelected roles, such as Ian
Birrell, former deputy editor of The
Independent and a graduate of City
(newspaper, 1985).
In 2010, Birrell agreed to become
David Cameron’s speechwriter for
the election campaign after being
approached by the Conservative
leader’s team. “It was too good an

opportunity to miss – to see what it
was like on the other side of the line,”
he says.
Birrell was plunged into the
madness of campaign season: drafting
speeches, writing articles, liaising
with journalists, editing copy – all
bread and butter to a seasoned hack.
“A good journalist writes very clearly,
can communicate ideas and is used to
operating to tight deadlines,” he says.
Throughout Birrell’s seven weeks
with team Cameron, old colleagues
would often get in touch. “I know lots
of people in the lobby,” he says. “Quite
often they’d ring wanting me to give
them a gem. Sometimes I would see
what they wanted. I wouldn’t talk to
them off the record but I would put
their case to people or help them out
with unblocking issues.” Since then,
Birrell has returned to journalism with
a fatter contacts book and the tag of
‘former speechwriter’ to add weight to
his opinion pieces.
The path to and from politics was
less smooth for Andy McSmith, a
political reporter at The Independent.
He left Fleet Street to take up a
salaried job as the Labour party’s chief
press officer in 1984, only to return to
full-time journalism in 1988.
McSmith says he was treated with
suspicion during his years with Labour
because he would often stand up for the
right of journalists to cover particular
topics. “Peter Mandelson decided that
certain journalists were a problem and
suspected they were friends of mine, so
he would have a go at me all the time,”
he recalls.
Eventually, McSmith started to long
for a return to journalism. “I missed
the excitement of chasing a story,” he
says. “I really missed writing. You can’t
write anything decently when you’re
in a political party because you have to
use stilted language that party officials
use to communicate with each other.”
Looking back, McSmith has a
warning for any journalists considering
entering the world of politics: “If you
go over you have got to do it properly.
You can’t mess around thinking you’ll
be half a journalist and half a political
hand. I’ve seen people try to do that
and it doesn’t work.” ●

Ben Bradshaw (above), Labour
MP and former Culture Secretary,
was an award-winning BBC radio
correspondent for 11 years.
A couple of old friends from Exeter
suggested I put my name forward. That
planted a thought in my mind: it might
be interesting to experience what it’s
like to be on the other side and have the
opportunity to actually do something,
and develop and implement policy
rather than just report it, comment it
and criticise it.
I was selected in September 1996.
Most of my BBC colleagues were very
supportive. One or two thought I was
a bit mad to be leaving a promising
journalistic career to go into politics.
Having a journalistic background
has been incredibly helpful to me as
a politician. I don’t feel intimidated by
going up against Humphrys or Paxman
because I know them. I know the
tricks of the trade so I’m well aware
when someone’s trying to trip me up. I
know how to handle interviews which,
amazingly, a lot of politicians still feel
completely terrified about.
The skills you develop as a journalist
can be very useful in politics. Things like
mastering the brief very quickly: you’re
appointed as a minister and within a
few hours you’re supposed to know
everything there is about your subject.
The best journalists know an awful lot
about what’s going on. Nick Simmons,
who was the former Whitehall editor
of the Financial Times, was absolutely
amazing. When I was a health minister
I used to find out what was going on in
my department from Nick.
I’ve never had the habit of having off
the record conversations with people.
Off the record is completely corrupt.
I haven’t had any regrets at all about
making the switch. I certainly feel I’ve
had the opportunity in politics to make
things happen which I wouldn’t have
had in journalism.
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23/03/2012 14:37:06

Features

THE BUSINESS
OF DATING
Media groups are
cashing in on the surge
in online matchmaking.
But could it damage
their credibility?
Kate Lloyd signs up to
find out

I

’m on a first date in a Hoxton
bar. Sitting across the table is a
fashionable 24-year-old, sipping
an organic cocktail. He works in
advertising and produces independent
films at the weekends. He seems like
your typical Guardian reader. In fact,
like me, he is a Guardian reader.
This comes as no surprise considering
I met him on its online dating site –
Guardian Soulmates.
No longer seen as closely guarded
secrets for a niche audience, dating
websites are attracting a young,
affluent clientele and have become
a crucial part of media companies’
business plans. Highbrow broadsheets,
top-end glossies, radio stations and
television companies are all luring
audiences in to finding a date on their
sites – but how has something as pure
and simple as the lonely hearts column
transformed into such a money spinner?
Online dating is now big business,
and an increasing number of media
groups are cashing in on their readers’
lacklustre love lives. The dating
industry is estimated to be worth
£2.5bn worldwide, with one in three
singles looking for love online.
Dating service provider White Label
Dating is now Bauer Media’s biggest
external brand extension partner.
The number of media organisations it
represents rose to 34 this February,
56 /

pp56-57.indd 2

from just eight in 2008. Dennis
Publishing, NatMags, IPC Media and
GMG Radio are just a few of the media
groups they work with.
Along with White Label’s partners,
newspapers including The Independent,
The Telegraph and the Evening
Standard also have dating sites, as
do magazines such as New Scientist,
Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health, and
radio stations including Real Radio and
Jazz FM. Membership can cost up to
£30 a month.
Lauren Barnes, who manages the
accounts of all White Label Dating’s
media partners, says that a few years
ago media organisations were not
interested in online dating, but are now
welcoming it.
It’s easy to see why. Research shows
that between 2007 and 2009, 22% of
heterosexual couples and 61% of samesex couples had found partners on the
web – compared with less than 1% of
the population in the 1990s.
Barnes says: “When I first started,
media companies were like: ‘Dating?
Oh no!’, but they’ve realised everyone’s
doing it. Their customer will only join
another site if they don’t have one.”
Media companies first got involved
with the market by doing affiliate
deals with large dating websites such
as Match.com, taking a cut whenever
a reader or listener joined. Now

groups have realised that by starting a
branded website they have more control
and get returning revenue. These niche
sites may not be the dating industry
leaders, but they are a cheap way for
media companies to make money.
Since many of the sites are run by
external dating providers, the staff
needed to run them is minimal. The
sites are located on media groups’ own
web pages and are advertised in unsold
advertising space in their publications
and radio stations, so marketing is free.
Users of dating sites are more willing
to switch from free profiles to paid
profiles on White Label’s media group
sites than on standard sites such as
Plenty More Fish or Match.com. Barnes
says this is because brands already
have a relationship with customers.
She explains: “Aligning a dating
website with a popular brand makes
it more acceptable for people to talk
about. A guy who reads FHM is more
likely to say: ‘I joined FHM - there’s
loads of hot girls,’ than ‘I joined Plenty
More Fish.’”
The growth of dating services has
also helped fill the gap left by classified
advertisements. Toby Frith, account
manager for The Times and The
Telegraph dating websites, predicts
that the classifieds side of their
business will not exist in four years’
time. As publications become more

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23/03/2012 14:38:07

Features

you the bother of spending all night
buying a random babe drinks at your
local bar” (Zoo No Strings).
The casual sex sites aren’t only a way
of attracting new customers; they’re a
way media companies can get users to
pay for their services twice. Someone
struggling with their search for love on
the main site might want to join the nostrings version too.
Despite the content, the moneymaking potential of casual sex sites
means that some unexpected media
organisations have started them.
The Independent doesn’t just have
he Times and The Telegraph
niche sites offering mature dating, gay
are not alone in moving their
dating and matchmaking – they also
classified online. Bauer’s first
have Naughty Independent Singles, a
foray into online dating was an
no-strings-attached option. It’s a move
Does Ward think these sites could
extension of Yours magazine’s classified
that appears very off-brand when other
pages, Friends of Yours, in 2006. Yours damage their brand?
parts of the newspaper’s site promise
He argues: “A huge chunk of Zoo
Dating is now one of the leaders in the
“sweep-off-your-feet romance”.
and FHM readers are going to look at
mature online dating market.
As the last dating taboos are swept
photos of naked women online - surely
Edmund Ward, Bauer’s commercial
away, no-strings-attached sites could
adult dating is more respectable than
partnerships executive, runs poker,
be the next big step in the relationship
that? We don’t have trouble with
dieting and dating websites for their
between media groups and an industry
advertisers because they’re cautious of
magazines. He thinks that despite the
that has always been controversial.
popularity of their dating sites, aligning pictures of naked women anyway.”
Newspaper personals columns were
Two thirds of Bauer’s income from
one with a publication like Yours has
illegal before the 1970s and until
online dating comes from the explicit
the potential to damage readers’ trust.
recently online dating was perceived by
He says: “When people complain, they side of the market. Unsurprisingly,
many as sleazy.
lads’ mags’ sexier sites are much more
invoke the ‘I would expect more of this
But now everyone appears to be
popular than their more romantic
brand’ complaint. We have to be very
at it. The fact I’m sitting across the
counterparts, with Loaded and Nuts
careful to protect our users.”
recently launching their own no-strings- table from my Guardian Soulmate is
Bauer might be careful, but many
incredibly normal. My main concern
attached sites.
media group dating sites, including
The sites are full of profiles of bleach- tonight is not that anyone would be
Bauer’s FHM and Zoo, now have more
surprised we met through a newspaper
controversial, no-strings-attached sister blonde, bikini-clad twentysomethings
dating service, but whether I’m the
and tag lines such as “gives you more
sites, which provide social networking
“opinionated, vivacious, mischievous
services for users looking for casual sex choice than an Argos catalogue”
dreamer” he requested on his profile. ●
(Loaded Brief Encounters) and “saves
rather than a relationship.
reliant on big brand advertising, the
space available in print for personal ads
is becoming more limited.
Online dating is quickly taking its
place. Telecom started The Times’s
dating site in 2005 and The Telegraph’s
in 2007. Both sites now have around
35,000 members.
Frith says: “Dating and the media
will always go together. If you
meet someone who reads the same
newspaper as you, you immediately
have an affinity with them.”

T

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Features

ALL SIGNS
POINT
EAST

S

mog-covered skies, a population
of almost 20 million, newsstands
heaving with everything
from Grazia to GQ – Beijing
resembles London in more ways than
one. Except that while newspapers
and magazines here face plummeting
circulation figures, the publishing
business is booming in China.
In metro stations in Beijing, vending
machines dispense magazines,
newspapers and even books. The
country’s astounding economic growth,
averaging 10% over the last 30 years,
has had a knock-on effect on the
publishing industry.
By 2006, China had overtaken India
as the world’s largest newspaper
market, selling over 96 million copies
every day. Western publishers such as
Hearst have seen Chinese versions of
flagship titles such as Cosmopolitan sell

58 /

pp58-59.indd 2

well over half a million, while monthly
circulation for its British counterpart
has dropped to 370,000. Magazines
including The Economist have
published dedicated blogs and special
editions chronicling the country’s
remarkable expansion.
It’s no wonder that young British
journalists are moving to the Middle
Kingdom. But what do they find when
they get there? Can the realities of
Chinese journalism really match the
allure of a booming industry?
Emma Draper was freelancing in
Hong Kong when she snagged an
assistant editor position at WestEast,
a high-end consumer magazine. “A
friend of a friend just offered me the
job after hearing that I was an English
graduate,” she said. “I’ve had spa days
in hotels with massages worth over
£100. I was given a designer bag. I

IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

As circulation figures dive in the UK,
Zing Tsjeng discovers the highs and
lows of heading east to join China’s
booming media industry

wouldn’t have got those perks after
such a short time if I was in London.”
The fast-track career progression
is typical of an industry that favours
fluent English speakers. In a country
where Chinglish signs like “unrecycle
rubbish” litter the streets, the language
is a valuable asset. It’s not hard to see
why opportunities seem to abound in
the east. But any journalist seeking to
relocate from Britain, with its relatively
egalitarian workplace culture,
should exercise caution. The Chinese
newsroom is a different beast.
Alice Philipson worked as a sub editor
for China Daily, the biggest Englishlanguage newspaper in the country. In
the time she worked there, she never
once corresponded with her managers.
“I never knew who was monitoring me,
ever,” she says. “I didn’t have anyone
to report to or give me any feedback.”

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Features

A

fter nine months, Philipson left
China for a job at The Daily
Telegraph. “I knew there was
a time limit on it,” she says.
“If I thought I was going to be working
for five years it would be much more
frustrating because I would never be
able to do any in-depth reporting.”
Journalists walk a tightrope in
China. On the one hand, the explosion
of microblogging sites like Weibo (a
hybrid of Twitter and Facebook) is
proof that the public is hungry for a
more critical press. On the other, the
authorities are quick to impose news
blackouts on any sensitive political
topics, and maverick editors and
reporters are sometimes reassigned or
replaced with little explanation.
Dr Marjorie Dryburgh, who teaches
contemporary Chinese history at the
University of Sheffield, believes that
journalists in China are engaged
in a constant to-and-fro with the
authorities. “Even the Chinese
journalists in the system will be
thinking: ‘Right, what do I know, what
can I publish, and how big is the gap
between the two?’” she says.
Foreign journalists face an even
steeper climb to get stories out. In
addition to the language barrier
and the lack of local contacts, those
employed by Chinese publications will
never be allowed near a sensitive story.

In the nine months Philipson worked
at China Daily, she was never given a
politics story to sub edit, let alone write
headlines for. “You just don’t get put
on those stories,” Philipson says. “Even
as a sub, I wasn’t subbing them – I was
put on quite ‘soft’ features.”
David Green is one man who
understands the far-reaching
consequences of rocking the boat. In
2008, frustrated by the constraints on
reporting at China Daily, he was fired
from his post for writing negatively
about the paper on Journalism.co.uk.
The Chinese authorities don’t forget
easily – three years later, Green was
denied a journalist visa. Looking back,
he views his Journalism.co.uk article
as a misstep.
“Having spent more time in the
country, the prejudices are easier
to understand,” he says. “It isn’t
necessarily about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it
is just different, and working here you
have to accept that.”
Green managed to stay in the
country on a less strict business visa.
Now, the ex-China Daily employee
has learnt the value of caution.
As managing editor of World of
Chinese, an arts magazine,
he recently took care to
edit down a travel story
about Tibet for
“fear of attracting
unwanted attention”
during the
National People’s
Congress.
“We’re a culture
and language
magazine,” he
says. “There’s no
mileage in us touching
topics that might cause
consternation with the
censors.”
Despite these
undeniable pressures,
there are those who still
think quality journalism
can thrive – albeit within
certain limits. “You know
that you can’t talk about
Taiwan, Tibet, religion, or
criticise the Government
too explicitly,” explains
Toby Skinner, the
former editor of Time
Out Shanghai.
“But you can still
sneak all kinds
of stuff in there.
“You can say
something like:
‘The Government
has responded to
accusations that they’ve
been hacking the

Pentagon. The reader knows that the
story is ‘Chinese Government hacks
Pentagon’.”
But even with this room for
manoeuvre, some journalists find the
dance with the censors exhausting.
With a booming demand for luxury
goods, the biggest growth market is
in high-end consumer magazines – an
industry that isn’t for everyone.
A year after joining WestEast, Emma
Draper realised exactly that. She left
and returned to London, frustrated
by the journalistic remit of a luxury
magazine. “It was a celebration of
people having money,” she shrugs. “It
was all about people buying handbags.”
For those willing to play by the
rules, there is mileage to be had out of
moving to the Middle Kingdom – just
don’t expect to be breaking China’s
Watergate any time soon. ●

IMAGE: TOM L

Reporters communicated with her
entirely by MSN Messenger.
Philipson puts this down to
cultural differences: “China Daily is
probably quite typical of the way state
businesses work: not knowing who the
people are in the higher echelons of the
firm. It’s very opaque.”
Transparency is not something most
foreign journalists find in China. Even
the inner workings of the publishing
industry are hazy. Non-Chinese media
companies must partner with a local
publishing firm to gain entry into the
lucrative market, but publications
can find themselves on the wrong side
of the law at suspiciously convenient
times. Time Out Beijing had been
published for four years before it was
temporarily shut down on the eve of
the 2008 Olympics due to the lack of a
“proper” licence.
Similarly, truth in the Chinese
newsroom is an ill-defined concept.
“What I’ll always remember is when
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize, the headline of China
Daily was ‘Most nations oppose peace
prize to Liu’,” says Philipson. “It
was absolute rubbish, but that was
the headline on the front page of the
newspaper I was working for. I was
just like: ‘OK, what am I doing?’”

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23/03/2012 14:39:23

TALES FROM THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Elections aren’t all about exit polls and kissing babies – from bloody
brawls to cowboy costumes, the stories behind the headlines are often
more colourful. Interviews by Julia Rampen and Nadia Khomami
The birth of freedom
John Carlin, freelance journalist
and author of Playing the Enemy

60 /

For most mothers this is a
moment of great excitement and
happiness. But she was pissed off
because she wasn’t going to be able
to vote.
I remember rushing her off
to hospital. I also shared her
frustration – having to go dashing
off to hospital at the crack of dawn
rather than covering the voting was
also a bit irritating!
Rosie had the baby. She didn’t get
a chance to vote, but she called the
little boy Nelson. JR
image: the guardian

It was South Africa’s first free
election. The prevailing mood was
obviously one of great joy but there
was a lingering anxiety that the
recalcitrant White Right might put
a bomb or two at a polling booth.
But people braved that risk. I
remember in Soweto people were
just queuing up from way before
dawn, in queues two or three
hundred yards long.
My housekeeper’s sister-in-law,
Rosie, who lived on my property
with her husband and child, was
heavily pregnant. As the election
approached, she was desperately
worried that she was going to miss
it because the bloody baby might
decide to pop out.
Sure enough, on election day, 27
April 1994, she went into labour.

’94

Press plane ski slope
John Lichfield,
The Independent
Whenever I fly I remember the safety
instructions on Clinton’s press plane
in the 1992 election. They were just
completely abandoned.
The press refused to follow them, to
the point that the plane would take off
with people standing up and smoking
cigarettes in the aisle.
There was a game that the
journalists played. You would wait
at one end of the plane with plastic
safety instruction leaflets underneath
each foot.
When the plane took off you would
try to ski back down the plane in
between the other journalists with the
instructions under your feet. Everyone
would cheer while the air hostesses
would simply watch and do nothing.
There was a party atmosphere.
I think that’s part of the nature of

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23/03/2012 14:55:54

IMAGE: AP / DAVID BRAUCHLI

Features

Chavez’s fist fighters
Mark Donne, freelance journalist

’06

At the time 81% of the press was under private ownership. If you went to
the most benign press conference, reporters were behaving essentially as
campaigners. The perception was that no one was impartial.
Once, a pack of journalists was invited to a briefing by Hugo Chavez’s
opponent, Manuel Rosales, in a district which was heavy Chavez territory.
It was a very brave thing to do – the equivalent of Cameron launching his
election campaign in Toxteth, Liverpool.
All the reporting in advance was on whether there was going to be civil
disobedience. Tension began building among the journalists that morning.
And when we went down there it reached the point where no one was even
reporting at all, they were just worried about inevitable violence.
As it turned out, we didn’t need to rely on any inhabitants of the district
kicking off – the journalists did it first. In the deep morning heat there was
this huge sound of hungover journalists attacking each other. I think someone
actually broke their neck. The briefing was postponed and the residents didn’t
get a chance to arrive because the media was too busy fighting. NK

image: ap / Stephan Savoia

’92

American journalism: the writing is
extremely serious but the journalists
themselves are full of fun. JR

I was making a television programme
for Channel 4 about Ken Livingstone.
A lot of people thought he was
untouchable, but there were lots
of rumours about his drinking. In
particular, it was said that he always
had a glass of whisky at his mayoral
questions sessions. This was interesting
because firstly, it’s fun, and secondly,
within City Hall staff weren’t allowed
to drink.
We went into long and detailed legal
discussions with Channel 4 as to how
we were going to prove that he was a
drinker. We went to mayoral hustings
and question time events and it was
quite clear that he had what looked
like a whisky glass and a brown liquid
in it. But the only way to prove it was
to actually get some of his whisky and
test it.
Ken used to very carefully take his
glass away after the sessions. But one
time he forgot. So my researcher leant
over, took his glass of whisky, and put
some cling film over it. I received a

phone call saying: “You won’t believe
it – we’ve got the whisky!” It was an
amazing moment.
We had it sent away to a lab and it
was tested as 100% proof whisky. He
hadn’t even watered it down. Actually
Ken was very funny about it. He
said: “Yeah, of course. Like Winston
Churchill, I need a drink. What’s wrong
with that?” It made a great piece. JR

Newt shows off his giant ego
Mark Mardell,
North America editor, BBC

’12

When Newt Gingrich won South Carolina in January his victory celebration
was in a hotel awash with the smell of bourbon. It was typical Newt – they had
guest speakers introducing him and saying what a tremendous job he’d done,
and then the music played and Newt didn’t appear.
They played six tracks again and again for about twenty minutes until Newt
Gingrich appeared.
He’s a man of enormous arrogance who keeps telling everybody that when
he was accused of being grandiose he took it as a compliment. He thinks
nothing of keeping a crowd waiting. JR ►
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27/03/2012 12:24:47

image: the guardian

Features

The cowboy candidate
John Carlin, freelance journalist
and author of Playing the Enemy

There had been a ruling party in power for about 60 years - very corruptly so,
winning election after election through spectacular electoral fraud. But in one
particular state on the US border it seemed as if the ruling party was actually
going to lose for the first time. The world’s press came along to see the first
brick in the wall falling.
Everything indicated that the opposition party was going to win. Their
candidate for governor was a charismatic cowboy type. At electoral meetings
he would parachute into the venue, jump on a motorbike and drive through
hoops of fire. The ruling party’s candidate was this rather stiff and boring
besuited bureaucrat.
The night the results came through, I was with him in his office. The results
came up on the telex machine – you would hear this “clack clack clack”. The
small outlying towns came first. Town X: ruling party 1,200 votes, opposition
party zero. Then another: ruling party 1,400 votes, opposition party zero. It
was all round numbers. Finally, after about five or six of these, we got to his
home town. Ruling party 4,500, opposition zero. He looked at me in despair
and said: “Brother, not even my mother voted for me.” JR

India’s tyrant topples
Paul Chutkow, former foreign
correspondent, Associated Press
A man’s
’01
world
Andy McSmith,
The Independent
The Labour party always had a woman
from Parliament on the platform for
morning press conferences reading a
prepared speech. But they would never
be able to answer any questions.
You’d have three or four people on
the platform: a couple of ministers,
usually Blair or Brown chairing. There
was always a woman sat on the end.
The person who was chairing it would
either answer the question himself, or
he would turn to a male colleague and
say: “You can answer this.” I don’t think
they even noticed what they were doing.
Eventually the hacks got into this
conspiracy in which they agreed that no
male journalist would ask a question.
At one conference, one of the women
journalists said to Estelle Morris:
“What do you think about the fact that
the women on the platform are never
allowed to answer any questions?”
Before Estelle could answer, Gordon
Brown, who was sitting next to her,
turned around and said: “I can answer
that.” Everyone in the room - hundreds
of hacks – burst out laughing, including
Estelle Morris, who sort of tapped him
on the shoulder. He realised he was
going to have to shut up and actually
let her answer the question. NK
62 /

’88

In January 1977, Indira Gandhi very
ambitiously called elections. She had
proclaimed a national emergency back
in 1975, putting several of her leading
political opponents in jail and throwing
out foreign correspondents. Only five
US journalists and a few from the UK
were left.
Gandhi was surrounded by “yes
people” thinking that the masses
would still re-elect her as prime
minister. Once she called the elections,
the opposition Janata Party framed
the election in a very simple way:
democracy versus dictatorship. And
that was the message that resounded

’77

all the way through the country.
On election night we were getting
Teletype stories from around the
country. It was very clear she was going
to lose, but because the returns came
in late and internal communications
in India weren’t great, the story only
broke the next morning.
There were incredibly boisterous
parades of trucks through the streets of
New Delhi. Horns blasted and people
shouted: “Long live Janata Party”. An
Indian journalist turned to me and
said: “You know what happened? We’ve
all underestimated the wisdom of our
people.” JR

Down to the wire
John Henley, The Guardian

’02

The common consensus was that the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin and the
incumbent Jacques Chirac would go through to the second round. The first
round results were coming through on a Sunday. I was due to write a 1,500word feature for the next day’s paper, a dual portrait of Jospin and Chirac.
I really don’t know what stopped me. I was literally sitting down to write it
that morning when I thought to myself – hang on, just suppose it’s not what
the polls are predicting? I had to convince the desk it would be better to write
the feature in a more general way. They said: “Do you really think that’s
necessary? It sounds like it is going to be a lot weaker.” I stuck to my guns,
thank God.
When the evening news came on in France. Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, the
legendary newsreader, said: “I can’t say anything more than the fact that we
appear to be heading towards an enormous surprise.”
My first thought was: “Hell! I’m going to have to write 3,000 words before
1am this morning.” I started writing. An hour later the final exit polls came
out: Jean-Marie Le Pen had knocked Jospin out. I was just churning out copy
all night. Of course, it made the front page splash. JR ●

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IMAGE: THE GUARDIAN

Features

WHY I
HATE
THE
WEB
Citizen journalism
is making waves,
Monique Rivalland
reports

The blogosphere is debasing the craft of journalism, says Robert Fisk

T

he internet has become a crass
structure for abusing and lying
about anybody. There are blogs
sent to me in hard copy which
are basically threats to my life because
of articles I have written about the
Middle East. They show pictures of me
with blood painted over my body.
There is nothing I can do about
it because there is no sense of
accountability online. If a local paper
says “Mr Fisk is a war criminal”, I can
take thousands off them and they’ll
never say it again. But if you say it on
the internet you can probably get away
with it.
There is a mad belief among
academics that the internet is this
wonderful tool. But it propagates a
third-rate and incorrect version of
what is said.
I read the other day that someone
had quoted Winston Churchill on
Stalin as saying: “Sometimes you have
to make a pact with the Devil.” But
what actually he said was: “If Hitler
invades hell I will at least make a

favourable reference to the Devil in the
House of Commons.”
I don’t use the internet but
sometimes I get hard copies of emails
and the grammar and spelling is
absolutely horrendous.

‘I get sent blogs
with pictures of
my body painted
in blood’
Our linguistic accuracy is being
degraded by technology. It’s woeful
when you talk to people who would
have known in the past and find that
they can’t spell simple words. We are
deforming our spelling because we
have computers that use auto-correct
or Americanisations.
The problem is people see everything
nicely printed up online and think it
must be kosher. They assume that
because it’s on the internet it has the

same veracity and responsibility as the
printed word. It doesn’t.
Of course people like to read online
because it’s free. I’ve had big debates
with people who read The Independent
on the web and stamp their feet and
say: “We have every right to read what
you say, why should we pay for your
information?” And I say: “That’s fine,
but I need to go to Cairo and you won’t
pay my air ticket.”
I don’t think the internet will
replace the printed press. People said
television would kill film and CDs
would see the end of vinyl records,
but both have survived. I’ve still got
my old records and that doesn’t stop
me buying CDs, but I know the old
recordings are much clearer.
I’m not a Luddite, I don’t want to go
around smashing new technology, but I
do think those who constantly say “it’s
the new thing, goodbye paper” should
stop and think about the pleasures of
reading the real thing in hard copy. ●
As told to Daisy Wyatt
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23/03/2012 14:56:03

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Sean Hillen
Job Freelance journalist and
author
Course Diploma, 1980
What has been your career
highlight so far?
Launching the first ever journalism school
in Romania together with the Human Rights League
soon after the fall of Communism, and establishing the
first English language weekly newspaper in Bucharest.
What regrets, if any, do you have about your
career choice?
I opted for adventure and change, living and working in
countries such as Ireland, the US and Romania. If I’d
stayed in one place, perhaps I’d have reached a senior
position in a large media group, but as that is often
administrative, I’d probably have missed out on the
memorable reporting experiences I’ve enjoyed over the
years. Anyway, I founded and led a national newspaper
with almost 40 staff for more than 10 years so I guess
you can’t get more senior than that.
Has the phone hacking scandal irreparably
damaged the integrity of journalism?
Damaged, yes; irreparably, no. Many scandals and
mistakes have besmirched journalism throughout its
development. It endured them, and will endure this
also. Good journalism will survive, perhaps not as
paper on paper, but it will survive as a leading form of
communication, information and analysis.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

James Cusick
Job Senior reporter, The
Independent
Course Diploma, 1982
What’s your plan for this year?
I’m with Woody Allen on this: the best
way journalists can make God laugh is telling him about
your plans. News has a bad habit of interrupting the
best laid plans. But there are places I’d like to be at
specific times. I’ve been in the United States covering
the last three presidential elections, and come OctoberNovember, I’d like to be in Washington again confirming
that Americans had the good sense to give Obama a
second term.
Will the increasing popularity of reading news
online change journalism?
That it will change journalism is a given. The good, the
bad and the ugly, around since the Daily Courant and
the Penny press, will, as before, find a new identity for
a new technology. The adaptation trick will centre on
the preservation of trust and values – and anyone who
says they know how that evolution will progress is lying.
‘Online’ news sources can mean looking for what you
expect to find. The element of the accidental, the best
part of a printed newspaper, is simply lost.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Ric Bailey
Job Chief political advisor,
BBC
Course Radio, 1982
What do you like most about
your job?
I get to do so many different things every day. I’m
dealing with the whole of the BBC. It’s not just domestic
politics. Sometimes it might be drama, sport, children’s
programmes. I have lots of opportunities.
What’s the most difficult thing you have
encountered in your role?
The biggest controversy was when we put the leader
of the British National Party on Question Time. That
was an argument that went to the heart of what the
BBC’s impartiality is. It was a decision that caused
riots outside the Television Centre. It caused a split in
the Cabinet and massive rows. It was the lead story in
newspapers. Although the concept of impartiality sounds
quite easy to make a judgement about, sometimes
there are some very difficult judgements that can cause
massive difficulties.
Where’s the place to be this year?
Politics is really fascinating at the moment in Scotland.
What’s happening in Scotland is a real political moment
for the next year or two. A lot of my time has been
spent thinking about what impartiality means in this
completely new context.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Roger Hearing
Job Presenter, BBC World
Service
Course Newspaper, 1984
What has been your career
highlight so far?
When I was East Africa correspondent reporting on
the genocide in Rwanda, and also the war in Somalia,
which of course is still going on. That was perhaps the
point where I felt I was doing the kind of thing one was
supposed to do as a journalist – bringing information
about things that people aren’t looking at and trying to
get people interested. I’ve also done a lot of reporting
from Iraq at various stages. Again, a sense there about
doing the most basic things about our craft.
What makes a good war reporter?
A good war reporter has to be prepared to take the risks
that they have to do to get to see the thing. I haven’t
been as much in the front line as many, but I’ve had
some close calls once or twice. You also have to look
beyond the hysteria that war brings and try and get a
clear picture of what’s happening to the people caught
up in it.
What’s the future of journalism?
In the West generally, the newspaper model is a very
difficult one to keep going. People expect to get for free
what previously they would have paid for. You won’t get
proper journalism if you don’t pay for it. I’m not sure it
can subsist purely on advertising, paywall, subscription.
Television, again the problem is that there are many
24-hour news channels now. In some ways, that has a
corrosive effect on news. Radio is very immediate; you
don’t have the pictures to distract you. So I hope it has a
future.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Ellen Nakashima
Job National security
reporter, The Washington
Post
Course International, 1989
What’s your plan for this year?
To do some great journalism.
What’s your dream interview?
A candid interview with Ayman al Zawahiri, or
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Ki from her
home in Yangon.
Who do you most admire in the media?
Reporters who risk their lives to cover the story.
Are we all doomed?
No way. Just the 99 percent of us.
REBECCA LLOYD

Samira Ahmed
Job Freelance
Course Newspaper, 1990
What’s your plan for this year?
Enjoying life as a freelance reporter
and interviewer, doing my mix of
political and cultural journalism and teaching at
Kingston University, where I’m a visiting Professor of
Journalism. From BBC Radio 4 news and current affairs
programmes, to presenting some Proms for BBC4 and
writing features for the national press. I am also writing
my first regular column - monthly in The Big Issue.
Your thoughts on the future of print publications?
Not good. It really saddens me to see such excellent
papers as The Guardian and The Independent getting
thinner and thinner. And the weekly magazines like
Time and Newsweek barely alive. On the other hand,
there is some hideous exploitation in some profitable
magazines. I am appalled at the exploitation of young
writers, while old dinosaurs get massive salaries for
often poor quality work.
Has the phone hacking scandal irreparably
damaged the integrity of journalism?
No. There was nothing that emerged from hackgate
that most of us didn’t know deep down. All the scandal
was already illegal under existing law. I would rather
be a British hack than a sanctimonious French or an
American one. Though I’d rather like to have the USA’s
protection of freedom of speech enshrined in law. If
Leveson paves the way for libel reform, it’s a start.
Are journalists doomed?
When online organisations like The Huffington Post
make millions from original content without paying
contributors for it, and most people seem not to mind,
I do wonder. More and more I feel the early decision by
most news organisations not to charge for online content
was a huge mistake. It established the principle that it’s
all for free. Good journalism is worth paying for, but I
fear it’s too late to make people see that.
REBECCA LLOYD

Catherine Jones
Job Health correspondent,
Channel Five News
Course Broadcast, 1994
What was your dream job when
you were 10?
I didn’t even begin to get career-minded until I
went to university. I’d like to think that being responsive
to a changing situation, rather than focused on a specific
goal, is a virtue in a journalist.
Why did you decide to be a journalist?
Student politics got me fired up about big issues
affecting people’s lives. Then I realised that drawing
other people’s attention to these issues by writing
about them gave me more satisfaction than organizing
marches or making posters. So I ditched politics for
journalism.
Where’s the place to be this year and why?
On Twitter and on websites like 38degrees, Edge.org
or AlterNet. When big cultural or attitudinal shifts are
underway, you can’t be left behind.
Are journalists doomed?
Not at all. There will always have to be someone sorting
the important facts from the irrelevant ones. But don’t
ask me to predict how journalism will be organised,
funded, transmitted or digested in the future - that’s far
too hard.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Victoria Stagg Elliott
Job Senior reporter,
American Medical News
Course International, 1998
What’s the best thing about
being a journalist?
The constant sense of discovery and being
there as history unfolds.
What regrets, if any, do you have about your
career choice?
None. I kind of wish I knew more about computer
program coding, but I’m learning.
Your thoughts on the future of print publications?
There is a future for print, but it’s not going to be
anything like the past.
Are journalists doomed?
No. I became a journalist because I wanted to tell the
stories that were not being told by people who didn’t
have a voice. More people have voices in our new
media world, but there will be always be demand for
particularly good story-tellers and information-seekers.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Andrew Bailey
Job Head of news and
breakfast news presenter,
Absolute Radio
Course Broadcast, 1999
What’s your dream interview?
I suspect legendary former CNN host Larry King would
have an amazing array of anecdotes to tell. Getting a
one-to-one with Prince Harry would be an experience - I
would offer beer and take it from there. I’d also like to
sit down with Star Wars director George Lucas and ask
him what the hell was going through his mind when he
created the character Jar Jar Binks.
Where’s the best place to be this year?
Right here in London. Whether you agree with the
funding of the Olympics or the Diamond Jubilee, London
is the place to be during 2012. There will be celebrations,
tantrums, sport, music and flag waving – plus a
potentially massive logistical nightmare for our capital
city - we won’t be short of stories to tell.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Elodie Mialet
Job Freelance, France 2
Course International, 2001
What has been your career
highlight so far?
I’ve been a freelance broadcast
journalist for 10 years now, and probably
worked for all the TV production companies in Paris.
But I’ve recently had my first 52’ film aired on France
Télévisions, dealing with the biggest break-in of the
millenium, and it was an achievement.
What do you like most about your job?
I love the behind-the-scenes access. For example, I can
spend a day shooting in the Château de Versailles,
during closing hours – just me, my crew and a PR –
freely walking in the empty room of Marie Antoinette. I
feel so privileged.
What’s your plan for this year?
I’m now directing a documentary about Victor Hugo, and
will travel to Guernsey in a few days. It will be aired
over the summer on national channel France 2, in the
series Secret d’Histoire.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Job Environment correspondent, Press Association
Course Newspaper, 2003
What’s the best thing about being
a journalist?
The people you get to meet and the stories they tell you,
some of which can be really inspiring. And there are the
unusual experiences you wouldn’t otherwise have. Some
of my most memorable moments include running down
the players’ tunnel at the Emirates Stadium in high
heels chasing the Duke of Edinburgh and seeing polar
bears up close.
Will the increasing popularity of reading news
online change journalism for the better or the
worse?
People getting their news online enables them to
exercise more choice over what they are interested
in finding out about, rather than the agenda being
controlled quite so much by newsdesks. Online news
gives the opportunity for far more stories to get a
hearing, which is a good thing, but with journalists
expected to produce more copy in the same amount - or
even less - time, along with the blurring of boundaries
between news, blogging and comments, we’re more likely
to see misinformation and inaccuracy.
Are journalists doomed?
It’s hard to see where journalism is heading, and how
the industry will adapt to these “interesting times” we’re
living through, and find ways to make money and pay
journalists, but I’m an optimist and I think that the
tradition of vibrant, free journalism in the UK is strong
enough to survive.
REBECCA LLOYD

Michael McGrath
Job Football reporter, The
Wardle Agency
Course Newspaper, 2004
What’s the best thing about
being a sports journalist?
It’s being right at the heart of the action of a sport that
you’ve been passionate about all your life. Not only do
you get to watch it close up, but also report on it. It’s a
very privileged position to be in, and it’s worth the hard
work. It’s something not to be taken for granted. You get
to travel to games and you’re often at very memorable
games that people would die to be there, let alone work.
Who do you most admire in the media?
I’d mention two people. Henry Winter at The Daily
Telegraph. If there’s a big match, I’d want to read his
report the following day. The other person is football
news reporter Neil Ashton at The Daily Mail. He gets
important stories and many younger reporters look up
to him.
What are your thoughts on the future of print
publications?
Some people say it’s troubled times, but I think it’s
interesting times as well. There’s a 24/7 culture now.
I was playing cricket on the day Fabio Capello quit as
England manager, and within an hour most people I was
with knew it already. That illustrates how instant news
is now. I still believe in newspapers because journalists
can get exclusive stories that can sell newspapers.
But it’s obvious you have to look at the way people are
consuming news because it’s changing all the time. It’s a
case of adapting.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Shyaka Kanuma
Job Chief editor, The
Rwanda Focus
Course International, 2005
What has been your career
highlight so far?
My career highlights are many. I have been named
winner of CNN’s prestigious Free Press Africa Award
(2001). I have received a Nieman Fellowship to spend
a year doing studies at Harvard (2002-3). I have won a
British Chevening Scholarship to do journalism at City
University. I have started a newspaper of my own that is
on the verge of succeeding, so you can take your pick!
What was your first ever story?
I wrote my first ever story in 1997 about a bad security
situation in the Rwandan capital Kigali.
How important is it that we have a free press?
Very important. I can’t imagine what shenanigans a
government would be up to without a free press.
Are journalists doomed?
No, far from it. We are doing a very good job of adapting
to the changing times in the media industry. Whatever
remains at the end of the day (whether we see the
demise of “dead tree” newspapers and magazines in
the coming decades, or whether “citizen” journalists
uploading their content on sites like YouTube), I cannot
imagine that we are going to depend on multitudes of
“citizen journalists” or activists substituting for trained
professionals.
REBECCA LLOYD

Nicholas Beake
Job Reporter BBC Radio
1’s Newsbeat
Course Broadcast, 2005
What’s the most difficult thing
you’ve encountered in this
industry?
Covering the July 7 London Bombings inquests for more
than six months. It was difficult not to be affected by
the desperately sad stories of each of the 52 victims.
But there were also inspiring accounts of bravery and
survival.
Who do you most admire in the media?
Alex Crawford was incredible in Libya, I love Ian
Pannell’s vivid reporting, and for his understated
brilliance PM’s Eddie Mair.
Where’s the place to be this year?
Away from President Assad’s regime clinging to
power, and on a much happier note, I’ll say London
and our Olympic summer. Let’s hope dazzling sporting
achievement eclipses any sort of transport meltdown.
Are journalists doomed?
Leveson and criminal investigations may be exposing
more of the dark arts allegedly practised in the name
of fair journalism, but there are far more thoroughly
decent people in this industry who want to tell good
stories, have fun and maybe make a difference.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Stanislava Kara
Job Presenter and associate
producer, BTV (Bulgaria)
Course International, 2006
What’s the best thing about
being a journalist?
It can be a stressful job but when you arm
yourself with patience, curiosity and knowledge about
what you are going to talk about, the people that you
meet can be the best thing about being a journalist.
The president of Ukraine Victor Yuschchenko kissed my
hand when I started my meeting with him.
Where’s the place to be this year?
I was posted to Bogota, Columbia for over three months
and it was one of the best places in the world despite its
reputation. In every country you have to learn the basic
survival rules from the locals and follow them because
they exist for a reason. After that you are ready to face
anything.
What makes a good war reporter?
I would say selflessness as the war reporter is a person
with a mission and a real devotion to the profession.
REBECCA LLOYD

Nicholas Francis
Job Creative Director, Casual
Films
Course TV CAJ, 2006
What’s your fondest memory of
your time at City?
During our Christmas Special Newsnight-style
programme. Warren Nettleford, who is now a reporter
at BBC London, had just delivered a piece about Italian
women who wear red lingerie at Christmas. He then
appeared onscreen wearing a frilly, red basque.
What do you like most about your job?
I like being in charge of a team of people who love and
are good at their jobs; directing their skill, passion and
hard work into one quantifiable creative output.
Who do you most admire in the media?
Ridley Scott, Antony Loyd, and Tim Hetherington.
Are we all doomed?
We are all doomed, but that’s all the more reason to get
stuck in right now.
REBECCA LLOYD

Bushra Siddiq
Job Researcher, Panorama
Course TV CAJ, 2007
What has been your career
highlight so far?
A BBC Panorama programme I’m
currently working. It deals with honourbased violence and domestic abuse. It’s quite important
to me because I’m from an Asian community and this is
something that is prevalent in Asian society. I’ve always
wanted to work in current affairs.
Has the phone hacking scandal irreparably
damaged the integrity of journalism?
It’s definitely made things harder. People view us with
scepticism when we call them up to do research or
get them involved in programmes. But I don’t think
it’s irreversible damage. As long as there are good
journalists doing things the right way, it should be okay.
Are journalists doomed?
No. I think this is one of the most enjoyable and
fulfilling industries out there. It’s a tough job, but I don’t
think we’re doomed at all.
VESELA GLADICHEVA

Mélanie Gouby
Job Multimedia producer,
Institute for War and Peace
Reporting
Course International, 2009
What do you like most about your
job?
I work with brilliant young Congolese women who are
not only risking their life to be journalists, but also have
to overcome society’s prejudices against women on a
daily basis. They are my greatest inspiration.
What makes a good war reporter?
Altruism and ambition. We all want to get the scoop, the
big story, but it has to be for the right reasons.
Where’s the place to be this year?
In wsub-Saharan Africa, it would be South Sudan. The
conflict resulting from Sudan’s split in two countries
is taking worrying proportions and will no doubt have
huge humanitarian consequences.
Why did you decide to be a journalist?
At 15, I was in love with the idea of journalism, the
adventures, the travels. Today at 25, I know it’s not so
romantic as I thought it would be, but I do travel a lot
and meet fascinating people every day. I love that my job
is about having great conversations on a daily basis.

Niklas Fagerström
Job Reporter, Finnish
Broadcasting Company
Course International, 2010
Why did you decide to be a
journalist?
I am curious by nature, and like to find out about
stories of importance. I also think that storytelling is
fascinating. As a kid, I used to publish my own smallscale hyperlocal newspaper in the Finnish archipelago
a few times a year, using my aunt’s early Macintosh
computer and printer. It made me realise that
journalism was really fun and something I would like to
do when grown up too.
What’s the big story for 2012?
Cyber-threats and the rise of the hacktivist group Anonymous. The group has shown itself capable of terrorising
governments and big businesses. The director of the FBI
recently said that cyber-threats will become the top worry for the US –e this is probably true for many European
countries too.
Are journalists doomed?
No. The future will be exciting and radically different
with better, more global access to journalism which can
be personalised to every reader. I don’t think journalism
will ever die out.

Daniel Tapper
Job Staff writer,
Waitrose Kitchen
Course Magazine, 2010
What’s the biggest obstacle
you’ve encountered in your
career?
Getting my first job. One of the hardest things was
convincing prospective employers that I was worth
spending money on when I didn’t have a portfolio of
work to show them. As a result I had to work for free for
quite a while to build up a body of work.
What did you learn from your time at City?
The importance of attention to detail. Before starting
at City I didn’t know how to write succinctly or how
important it is to remove unnecessary adjectives. I also
didn’t know how to think visually – with design in mind
– or how to write concise pitches. Thankfully I had all of
these things drilled into me. But I’m still learning.
Your worst habit as a journalist?
Caring too much what people think. I naturally hate
drama but I think to be a good journalist you have to
learn to be pretty robust and at times confrontational.
Ultimately people will respect that.
Are journalists doomed?
Not if we are willing to be versatile and embrace media
other than print. It’s important to try a bit of everything,
from making videos to social networking. It’s not all
about writing.
REBECCA LLOYD

Miyuki Seguchi
Job Financial reporter,
Dow Jones Newswires and
The Wall Street Journal
(Tokyo)
Course Financial, 2011
What did you learn from your time at City?
The basic journalistic skills to help me hit the ground
running when I started my career: methods to write
good stories, reporting techniques in finance, economics
and corporate news, and practical skills in broadcasting
and editing.
What’s the best thing about being a journalist?
A big advantage is that I can talk to top officials of
countries, executives at worldwide famous companies
and well-known industry professionals, and listen to
their views and policies directly.
What makes a successful journalist?
Strong curiosity, and constantly making the effort to
develop your knowledge through researching, reading
and reporting, while treating everyone in a friendly and
polite manner.
DAVID WOODE

Louise Ogden
Job Web editor, British
Science Association
Course Science, 2011
What did you learn from your
time at City?
The main thing I learnt was how to write
well. With science journalism you have to make
it understandable and engaging to the general
public as the language can be quite difficult. We had a
taste of everything at City so we got a sense of where our
strengths lay.
What was your first story?
It was about the money that’s put into astronomy
research during a time of coalition-led cuts to science
and education funding. I focused on research in physics
and how the public could benefit from this.
What has been your career highlight so far?
At the moment I’m working on a really successful
Facebook campaign to promote Science and Engineering
Week. I’m doing a lot of work around social media which
I wouldn’t have been able to do without the online
journalism training at City which showed me how to
manage a blog and website content.
NATASHA WYNARCZYK

Anonymous blogger Fleet Street Fox, who has worked at both broadsheets
and tabloids for more than a decade, explains why red-tops rule the roost

T

abloid journalism can change
the world. The red-tops make
money so can afford to mount
more thorough
investigations,
which is especially
important in a time
when most outlets
rely on freedom
of information
requests and press
releases to
tell stories.
You see a
lot of people
looking down
their noses at
tabloids but
they are the
biggest form of
news media, read
by people in their
millions. Yes,
their readership
is falling, like
other forms of
print, but they
outsell broadsheets 10
to one in some instances.
It’s easy to see why they’re
so popular. They know what
sells and what their readers
want and they operate in a
more business-like way.
I first decided I wanted to be a
journalist when I was younger and
watching footage of the fall of the
Berlin Wall.
I remember seeing Kirsty Lang on
the BBC with her pearl earrings and
thinking “that’s what I want to do”.
I wanted to take a front seat when
history was made.
Most journalists I know came into
124 /

the career because they thought they’d
change the world.
I know broadsheet journalists
who are very good reporters, but the
reporters on tabloids are better, because
they’re a bit more mischievous.
Other kinds of journalists like to
hang out with us because we’re fun,
witty and great to go to the pub with.
Broadsheet hacks are more likely to
stand at the back of the press pack and
watch, then report on other journalists.
The hardest job on Fleet Street is
famously at a tabloid – subbing The
Sun. You’re crunching 1,000 words
down to 250 which is hard in itself,
but then you need to
come up
with a
killer
headline
of three or
four words
which has to
include a pun.
You don’t get that on
the broadsheets. It’s a
different skill. You’re
better trained because
what you are dealing
with is more political
and there is a lot
more pressure.
The pressure
showed with
the recent
News of
the World
closure. The
way my tabloid colleagues who
worked there were treated was
appalling. Can you imagine if
an entire firm got shut down
for wrongdoing and criminal

behaviour that happened five years
ago? There would have been complete
outrage.
With the News of the World, people
lauded its decline. How was it right
making others pay the price to save
the skin of executives? Journalists at
News International are steaming mad.
Talented journalists I know had their
careers effectively ended by what
people who didn’t adhere to the PCC
code of conduct did. I’ve never had a
PCC ruling brought against me and
neither have any journalists I know.
I’ve been heavily criticised for
standing up for those who lost their
jobs. People think I’m an apologist for a
sinful thing but still read my blog.
But there are loads of people out
there who hate Liz Jones, Richard
Littlejohn and Jeremy Clarkson yet still
read them and talk about them. A good
columnist should be like Marmite, so I
think it’s a good thing.
It’s the same with the Daily Mail.
People complain about it but they’re
obviously reading the website. I hate
anything narrow-minded – I don’t have
a problem with broadsheets existing but
just like the Mail, The Guardian follows
a very narrow political agenda. Saying
that one should cease existing and the
other shouldn’t is a bit fascist.
I know I won’t ever get through to
tabloid haters. But I’d rather have my
work read by millions than hundreds of
thousands. Wouldn’t you? ●
As told to Natasha Wynarczyk
Fleet Street Fox blogs at
Fleetstreetfox.com. Her new book Diaries
of a Fleet Street Fox will be available
this summer.